Fire and Darkness
by Step Of Death
Summary: Six months after saving the world, the dark hero of Mobius, Shadow, decides on starting a new life. Everything was perfect until he met a certain person, and suddenly he finds himself experiencing feelings he thought he would never feel. As he struggles to understand them, he also does his best to fulfill a promise to his friend and protect the world once again. Pairings: Shadaze.
1. Prologue

**Hello. I'm the author, and I'd like to ask you review on my story if you come to like it. Please enjoy the beggining of a long story!**

 **I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog or any character is this fanfic.**

* * *

 **Prologue**

The alarm clock came to life. It's loud sound echoed in the small room. The black hedgehog cursed and furrowed his brows in annoyance as he slowly woke up. His eyes opened, revealing his red irises. Gritting his teeth, he slammed the alarm clock, being careful not to use too much force and break yet another one. "Stupid alarm clock." he muttered.

Shadow enjoyed the silence for some seconds, but then quickly used all his will-power to get up from his bed before he drifted into sleep yet again. Yawning, he headed for his bathroom and brushed his teeth. He then threw some water on his face to see if it would help him wake up. It did.

He then returned to his bedroom and opened the curtains. Light found it's way on his room, and for a few moments Shadow admired the city's view. He quickly dressed up in his suit and a blue social shirt underneath it and headed for the kitchen, where he started cooking his breakfast.

He glanced at the clock. 8:07AM. He still had some time before work, but his diligent and prideful side made him want to be there in time.

"I'm the ultimate life form... I can't arrive late on my job. I'd be ashaming myself." He thought to himself. He sat down and started eating. It tasted great. It was only natural, since he worked as a cook.

* * *

 _Two years before..._

 _Shadow had just saved the entire universe. In his last heroic deed, everyone thought he ended up dead. But somehow, as he wandered through space, his unconscious body found it's way to Earth. And somehow he survived._

 _He woke up to find his body frozen solid in a giant ice stone. It seemed the ice had started to melt. Without wasting time, Shadow forced his way out of the ice and got up. Then it hit to him that he had just saved the Earth and was somehow still alive._

 _To him it was only natural. He was the ultimate life form. Surviving a fall from space was nothing. But he still had a problem. He was alone and with no idea where he was. Sure, the alone part was normal to him, even though he disliked it a bit._

 _To make things worse, he had awakened from a deep slumber, so he also had no idea for how much time he wandered on space or how much time he spent on Earth._

 _But as his strenght returned to him, he wondered if he was in the right planet and the right dimension. He started running, exploring the vast world in front of him. He jumped through mountains, deserts, forests. Then, after a long run..._

 _He found a city. A very busy city. A city he recognized. He was at Station Square._

 _"Finally."_

 _Without wasting time, he dashed towards the city. A few things were different from what he remebered. His eyes wandered through the buildings, and he soon he started considering again how much time had passed since he saved the planet._

 _Luckily, he was next to a convenience store, and right next to it's doors were a few calendars on display. He noticed the year was the same from when he last remembered, but all the calendars were at least 6 months ahead of when he last checked it._

 _The hedgehog sighed and frowned. "Damn... Six months lost."_

 _He continued on his way, clearly annoyed. Without a doubt everyone considered him dead right now..._

 _Or maybe not._

 _He noticed a familiar picture in a poster nearby. He approached it, clearly knowing he would regret it. He picked it up and recognized himself. On that bounty poster._

 _"WANTED_

 _DEAD OR ALIVE_

 _Shadow the hedgehog. AKA The Ultimate life form_

 _Bounty: 500.000.000$_

 _If you see this hedgehog, contact the G.U.N military force. Remember: He is a threat!"_

 _Shadow couldn't believe that poster. It seemed he was still seemed as a threat, even after saving the goddamn world. He gritted his teeth and threw the poster away._

 _"Ungrateful bastards... so this is what I get after saving them? I should've let Black doom destroy these garbage..."_

 _Still angry, he remembered his promise to his friend, Maria. He would do whatever he could to protect the world. He swore he would fight and protect her homeland even if it cost his life._

 _...But at the moment, he only regretted his promise._

 _And he had every right to. He fought heroically to protect others, and was still seen as a villain. He clenched his fists. He was mad._

 _But his anger vanished for a moment as his belly made and awkward sound. Shadow then noticed how hungry he was. After 6 months without eating, that was to be expected. A normal person would be dead by now, but he could endure it._

 _Even so, he still needed to eat._

 _As he kept walking, he caught the smell of delicious food, and was instantly attracted to it. As he was about to enter it, he stopped to think about his current situation._

 _He was a wanted hedgehog who was presumed dead by all his 'friends', with no money, food, or house. He was in a messed up life at the moment_

 _He thought of invading the restaurant and stealing the food, but he dismissed the idea. It would bring unwanted attention to him, and besides, the hunger had considerably weakened him._

 _He sighed. There was only one way. He noticed the restaurant was in need of employees. Without wasting time, he entered it. It was a simple, yet beautiful place. Calm, classic elevator music was being played in the background. Paitings and other types of decoration were all over the place. Shadow found that place pleasant._

 _It was quite full, and Shadow could see the waiters in a hurry. He was enjoying seeing the humans running around. At least his black humor stayed the same._

 _It was then Shadow noticed a tall, fat man had approached him. He wore a suit, had a big mustache and was bald. He eyed Shadow curiously._

 _"Can I help you?"_

 _"You work here, I assume. I'm interested in a job." The black hedgehog pointed to the poster which said they were in need of employees, but the man didn't turn to see it, and kept looking at Shadow intensely. He raised an eyebrown._

 _"I'm the owner of this restaurant. If you want a job, I want to know what you're capable of doing. Can you cook?"_

 _"...No."_

 _The man frowned_

 _"Can you serve people with a smile and respect?"_

 _"...I don't think so."_

 _"Then I don't see how you would fit in here, my boy. You clearly have no experience in any area you could work here. Give me a good reason to hire you." The man faced Shadow with a serious expression._

 _Shadow frowned "Because I'm the ultimate life form, and having me work here would be the best goddamn thing you could do for this place. I can learn how to cook and do whatever you need me to."_

 _The man stared at Shadow for a few moments before bursting into laughter, which made Shadow even angrier._

 _"Hahaha... Ultimate life form? Youngsters these days..."_

 _"I don't see how that is funny. What I told you is a fact, old man." He glared at the fat man_

 _The man stopped laughing and faced Shadow some more. He was about to say something when Shadow's stomach made yet another loud sound._

 _"You seem hungry." The man stated matter-of-factly_

 _Shadow rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I haven't eaten for a while. I have no job, no house, no money and everyone I know thinks I'm dead, so I just need this job so I can eat something every once in a while."_

 _Shadow then noticed how messed up his story was. Even though it was true, there was no way the man would believe he had just saved the universe and hadn't eaten anything for 6 months._

 _But the man stared just at Shadow for some moments. Then motioned for Shadow to follow him. The man and the Hedgehog entered the kitchen. The owner of the restaurant picked up a plate from the dish washer and filled it with food, then after grabbing a knife and fork, he motioned for Shadow to follow him yet again._

 _They ended up in the man's office. It was painted red, and it was pretty simple. All it had was a window, a desk, three chairs and a computer. Sure, it had other things such as a trash can and a fan, but if was a pretty basic place. Simple and efficient._

 _The man handed the plate and the utensils to Shadow "Eat up."_

 _Surprised, Shadow took the food and started eating at the man's table. The man himself sat at the opposite side of the table. Shadow faced him curiously._

 _"So you believe me?" He asked._

 _The man played with his mustache. "Well, actually it's pretty hard to believe. But I have felt hunger before, so as a cook I think it's my duty to serve those who are hungry." Shadow stayed in silence, savoring his food. The man continued_

 _"Being a cook is a great responsibility. Cooking is an art, but it's an art that grants and saves lifes. That's why the work of a cook should be seen as sacred. It's what I strongly believe in." He faced Shadow "So that's why I can't simply throw this responsiblity at someone who claims to be an ultimate life form at a job interview."_

 _Shadow stopped eating. "Then you're not giving the job to me?"_

 _"Well. About that, You said you had no money. So you would have to pay for this food somehow. Can you clean dishes?"_

 _Shadow glared at the man. Of course the ultimate life form could do something like that._

 _"Yes."_

 _"Then when you're finished, that's what you will do. If you do a good job, I'll consider letting you work as a dish cleaner for a while."_

 _Shadow nodded and kept eating. The man then settled down and drank a cup of water. Noises from the kitchen could be heard. People walking, food being fried, the order bell ringing. The black hedgehog couldn't help but feel a bit curious._

 _"So what is it like? Working as a cook, that is."_

 _The man smiled. "It's greatest thing. It's pleasant to see people enjoying what you made, and the fact that the simple plate of food you served them helped them live a bit longer. Cooking is a beautiful thing. Too bad I don't have much time for it now"_

 _Shadow could see how much this man loved what he did. He started respecting the man at that moment._

 _"I see..." Shadow said and the conversation ended._

 _He finished his food and the man took him back to the kitchen. He stood in front of a pile of dirty dishes, cups and utensils. The man gave him a cleaner uniform and cleaning items, then left. Shadow wore his clothes and started working._

 _"Can't believe I'm actually enjoying this..."_

 _As he cleaned, he stop every once in a while to watch. The cooks were preparing all kinds of food with all care. He could also see their anger and their disappointment when they saw their food being wasted. From a window, he could also see the satisfaction in many of the clients's faces when they ate the food._

 _The words from the fat man were still fresh in his head, and he could see why that work was so precious to him. It made Shadow think about many things. About his own hunger, about his promise to Maria, about his current life, his future. And with such a sight before him, he couldn't help but be fascinated._

 _He kept cleaning and watching the cooks work all the afternoon. When the dishes finally stopped coming and his job ended, the man returned to see him and was quite impressed._

 _"Excellent work! You did a fine job young one."_

 _"Hey old man." Shadow called, still facing the dished in front of him. The old man noticed he had a different tone and got curious. Shadow then turned to the man, with a hint of determination in his emotionless eyes._

 _"Teach me how to cook."_

 _The old man's eyes widened. Shadow continued. "I want to become a cook. From the small time I spent here, I'd be lying if I said I didn't appreciate the work of a cook. It truly is something to admire, and since I need a job, I came to conclude that this would be the best job I would ever have."_

 _The old man bursted in laughter. "So you want to be a cook?"_

 _"Yes." Shadow's expression didn't falter_

 _"Will you promise to think about others as you cook?"_

 _"Yes."_

 _"Will you accomplish your duty as a cook to end people's hunger?"_

 _"Yes."_

 _"Will you give proper punishment to those who waste food or disrespect it?" At this the man winked. Shadow flashed him a quick smile_

 _"Yes."_

 _"Well then, young man. Consider yourself an apprentice cook and an employee at this restaurant." The man said with a proud smile "I'll teach you the art of cooking"_

 _Shadow nodded "Thank you."_

 _The man extended a hand to Shadow. "My name is Zeff, and I'll teach you how to cook from this day and on. Tell me your name, youngster."_

 _Shadow grabbed his hand._

 _"Shadow the hedgehog."_

* * *

Present time...

Shadow snapped back to reality and checked his clock once again. He then returned to eating as he remembered how his life changed in the past two years.

The owner of the restaurant, Zeff, taught Shadow many things. On the first year, Shadow moved in at the man's house, since he had nowhere to go. So he learned all kinds of cooking skills all the day, from breakfast to dinner. At first his cooking wasn't the best, but that was to be expected. What nor Shadow or Zeff expected was on how his cooking would improve so much.

But cooking wasn't the only thing Shadow learned. Zeff also had two special coaching courses for Shadow.

One of them was to improve Shadow's social skills. The man tried to make Shadow become a more sociable person, and taught him many social skills he would need. Some of them were easy for Shadow, such as table manners and business talk. But others proved to be a challenge.

He tried to have Shadow act nice with every customer. But to someone who was naturally anti-social and unfriendly, Shadow failed miserably. He wouldn't stand people's bullshit, and would often get into fights with people. The slightest thing could make the hedgehod mad as hell, and somehow he managed to avoid destroying the restaurant. But he didn't fail at beating those who angered him.

He, however, was taught by Zeff on how to be a gentleman. Zeff always told him that 'women are the most precious thing in this world, and man who failed to treat them nice or to respect them were NOT real men'.

Shadow didn't understand why women would be so important, but Zeff would always get angry whenever a woman was disrespected. The one time Shadow saw Zeff angry was because the hedgehog had bad-mouthed one. The man was so angry that he even threatened to fire him and kick him out of his house.

That surprised Shadow a lot. So he ended up trying his best to be nice, at least, to women.

He promised to Zeff that he would never raise his hand to harm a lady, and would never allow women to be disrespected in front of him until he could not stand anymore.

But it was easier said than done.

Lots of women seemed to have the talent to annoy him, specially those who kept taking pictures of themselves and talking loudly. He did what he could to stop himself from yelling at them or kicking them out. and believe me, for Shadow, it was very hard. But he managed to withstand it. His job was on the line after all.

The other training Shadow went through was about fighting.

Despite his appearances, Zeff was once a renowed fighter. He had his own fighting style, which he developed after years of training hard.

He called it the Fire foot style.

"A cook's hands are his very soul. He must avoid harming them and do whatever possible to protect them." His words were still fresh in Shadow's mind.

The style was based solely on kicks, therefore the use of hands and arms was only used in handstands, and nothing else. No punches or grapples. Just kicks.

But to master this fighting skill, one has to throughly develop his legs and feet, to make the kicks harder, faster and more powerful.

It wasn't a complete opposite of Knuckles's fighting style, in which the equidna used mostly his oversized hand and sheer power of his punches to annihilate his opponents. That's because even though his punches are powerful, they were slow and lacked technique.

Shadow's new fighting style, however, combined his insane speed with precision and power, making his kicks deadly. He even managed to develop a variation of his trademark attack, chaos spear, by sweeping his leg in the air at a high speed, consequently releasing his chaos energy with it.

Shadow smirked. He didn't expect he would get stronger by training with a human. Not just a human, but a cook. He was sure glad he met that man two years ago. He was also glad he managed to buy his own house too. He couldn't stand listening to the old man's snore every single night.

But why would he learn fighting techniques? That's simple. Due to the restaurant's fame, hoodlums and ruffians constantly barged in there, looking for ways to threaten people and steal their money. Shadow was trained specifically to protect the restaurant and it's people.

But he was still a hero as well.

A lone hero, yes. The dark hero of Mobius. But still a hero. And despite his loneliness and his wanted head, he still had promised to protect people. And that's what he did. Not as much as Sonic, of course. But if he saw a crime happening, he acted. He knew it was the right thing to do.

He pulled a cigarette from one of his suit's pockets and set it in fire. He couldn't remember when he started smoking, but it was his way to deal with stress. And in his opinion, it made him look cool. He exhaled some smoke as he sighed.

"Alone..."

He placed his empty plate and cup on the sink and quickly cleaned it. After that, he headed outside. He took a glance at the sky. The sun was bright, but a certain part of the sky was gray. He then knew it was going to rain soon. Finishing his cigarette, he threw it away and started walking, thinking about the long day ahead of him.

* * *

In a kingdom, at an alternate dimension, a silver-colored hedgehog and a purple cat were together in the dining room of the castle, talking to each other. The feline picked up a glass of wine and took a sip of it. She got a few goosebumps from it, still a bit unfamiliar with it's sour taste. The hedgehog mocked her.

"What's with that face Blaze? Hahaha" The cat threw a glare at her friend

"Hmph!" She frowned and got up from her seat, picking a glass of water and quickly drinking it to help get rid of the unwanted taste in her mouth. She then sighed and headed for the window. The hedgehog noticed his friend seemed a bit tense.

He turned to her. "You okay?"

"I'm... I'm fine, Silver. I'm just a bit worried." The cat answered sincerely. The hedgehog approached her.

"What's wrong?"

Without turning to face her friend, she kept looking outside. "It's been so peaceful recently... Eggman Nega had been missing for some time... I don't know, I have a bad feeling about this." She hugged herself.

"Ah, is that it? Don't worry Blaze. I'm sure everything is fine. Besides, no matter what he throws at us, he'll never beat us and get the Sol emeralds."

She frowned. "But... YOu shouldn't be involved in this. It is my sole duty to protect the-"

"Oh, come on." Silver rolled his eyes. He was tired of listening to the same speech every time he mentioned the emeralds. "You know you can count on me to protect these. They are important not just to you and me, but to our whole world."

The cat nodded at her friend. Still, it bothered her that sometimes she had to depend on others to do something she was supposed to do.

But still, she couldn't get rid of that feeling of uncertainty.

"I know that, Silver. I'm just nervous because the doctor hasn't done anything for some time. I fear he's planning something big." The hedgehog shrugged in response

"Maybe he just gave up stealing the emeralds."

The cat threw him an incredulous look. "As if that man would give up. He's one of the most persistent people I have ever seen." She looked back to the window and sighed. "I just want to protect my kingdom. My people need me. And I can't rest assured without knowing if they are safe."

The hedgehog smiled at the cat. He admired deeply her love for her people. There was no doubt that she was the best person possible to rule that kingdom, and he respected her for that. He placed a hand in her shoulder.

"What would your people think if they saw your insecurity and your anxiousness? Loosen up! Just enjoy the peace, if anything happens we'll be there. You have to be strong for your people, ya'know."

The cat smiled at her friend "You're right Silver... Maybe I'm overthinking things." The hedgehog returned a grin. "You sure are!"

The two laughed together for a while, before Silver suddenly seemed to have an idea

"Hey, you know what? How about we go eat something?". The hedgehog proposed. Blaze smiled "That sounds good." They then started heading back to the dining table.

Until they heard an explosion.

Alarmed, both ran to the window, and they could see a huge fire and a lot of smoke coming from a house a bit far away from the castle. They also heard the sound of machine guns from several directions and a few more explosions. Blaze's eyes widened in horror.

"W-What's going on?!" The princess asked in confusion and desperation. The hedgehog seemed just as surprised. "I have no idea!"

Just then, the dining hall's door was burt open by Gardon, the koala, who had a desperate look in his face.

"Princess! It's Eggman Nega! H-He's attacking the city with an army of robots!"

"WHAT?!" The princess threw another look through the window, and she could make the image of a large robot blowing up a house with a laser. She turned back to the koala with an angered expression.

"Send the troops! Protect the town!"

The koala nodded then ran away to warn the troops. He came back later recieving the word from their warlord that the troops had been sent and the situation was being dealt with. He quickly explained to situation to the princess, who still seemed angry and worried.

Soon they heard another explosion, but this one seemed to have hit the castle. A soldier came in the room and kneeled before Blaze.

"Your higness! The robots are trying to infiltrate the castle!" The cat's eyes widened.

"They're after the emeralds! I have to keep them safe." She said. Just then, a flying robot appeared outside the window and started shooting at Blaze's direction, but she was saved at the last second y Silver's telekinetic powers, which he used to push her away from the bullets. With his other hand, he controlled the robot and smashed it into the wall. He then turned to Blaze and yelled.

"It's not safe here! We have to hurry to the emeralds!" Blaze nodded, and ran off, with Silver, Gardon and the soldier behind her. They heard a few robots entering through the window from earlier, and they quickly managed to leave the room and lock the doors from outside. As they left, they saw a few armored soldiers outside, waiting for their princess. The soldier from earlier yelled at them.

"Protect the Princess! Don't let her be harmed!"

The small group placed nodded affirmatively and placed their hands in their forehead. "Yes sir!"

A small group of robots emerged from the hallway, and the ones in the dining room started shooting the doors open. The soldiers surrounded Blaze and the others and raised their oversized shields at all directions, protecting everyone from the bullets.

"Escort me to the Sols emeralds, FAST!" Blaze commanded. The soldiers nodded and started moving. The sound from bullets being deflected by the shield made all of them aprehensive. Silver managed to use his powers and smash two robots together, but more robots appeared after them. He snarled in annoyance "Damn, how many of them there are?!"

Blaze managed to slip one arm through the shields and throw a fireball at one robot, causing it to explode. The soldiers quickly moved in, and after some time they managed to clear the way from the robots. They finally reached the room where the emeralds were and they locked it from the inside. Blaze quickly ran to the safe where the emeralds were. It seemed it was intact. "Good, they're safe.."

She quickly opened it and placed the emeralds in a well protected case, that could only be opened by a pyrokinetic. Soon they could tell the robots had caught up with them, as they heard noises outside.

"This way, Princess!" Gardon pointed to a door at the opposite side of the room, and everyone rushed to it. After all of them passed the doors, they locked it up. They were now in another corridor, and they didn't waste time in running. soon, robots invaded through the windows and the ceiling, scattering rubbles and broken glass everywhere. Blaze and Silver took the offensive and started to burn and smash the robots, while some soldiers protected the harmless Gardon and others fought bravely against the robots, by piercing them with spears and shooting them with muskets.

But no matter how many they defeated, lots of others appeared, and they soon found themselves surrounded. The hedgehog and the cat dodged as many blasts as they could, and the soldiers also did their best at protecting both. But hey were being outnumbered.

They had no other choice. Gardon ran as fast as he could and opened a certain door, as he yelled for everyone to follow him. Blaze and Silver ran towards the door as they kept dogding the robots's attacks and as they kept blowing them up. When they managed to enter, they noticed they were in the room wit the dimensional portal, and that Gardon was already proceeding to turn on. Blaze widened her eyes.

"What are you doing Gardon?" She asked, knowing it wasn't something good. Silver faced her, a serious expression in his face that Blaze couldn't remember having ever seen.

"Blaze, you have to get out of here. Take the emeralds with you!"

Blaze knew that was coming, and she quickly shook her head, not accepting it. "No way! I have to stay here and protect my kingdom and my people!"

The sounds of the robots fighting the soldiers could be heard, and from what they heard they knew the soldiers were losing. Silver grabbed both of Blaze's shoulders and glared deeply in to her eyes. "Listen to me! If these emerald fall at Nega's eyes, it'll be the end of our dimension! You HAVE to keep them safe!"

Blaze shook her head even more and now had an angered expression! "I can't leave everyone here!"

Just then the door bursted in, and a giant menacing robot slowly approached the cat, who looked at it and froze in fear. The robot raised a metallic claw and lauched it at Blaze, but something stopped it.

Or, rather, someone.

Before Blaze could understand what happened, she saw the robot thrusting it's claw through Silver, who jumped in the way. The hedgehog vomited some blood, while the cat widened her eyes in total horror "SILVER!"

Frowning and with the last of energy he had, he used his powers and made Blaze fly at the portal's direction. "GO!"

"NO!" The cat cried, but soon she found herself getting sucked by the portal, and the last thing she saw was Silver's body falling to the ground in a pool of blood.

When she opened her eyes again, it was total silence. The complete chaos from a few seconds ago was gone. She was alone in the middle of nowhere, and all she had with her was the case containing the Sol emeralds. She looked up at the night sky, eyes still widened and full of surprise. She felt the tears coming to her eyes, and she remembered the tragic fate of her best friend.

"Silver...!" She bursted in tears, not being able to keep them. She cried for what seemed like hours, until she eventually ran out of tears. She slowly got up and she saw that she was at the top of a plateau in a wasteland. Despite that, she was able to tell that she was at Sonic's dimension.

The cold night breeze gently danced around her, giving a freezing sensation at her eyes eyes and face. She quickly got rid of her tears. The earlier events still fresh on her mind. She clenched her fists in anger. He attacked her city. He harmed her people. He destroyed her palace. And he killed her friend. Anger consuming her, Blaze gritted her teeth as she unconsciously burst her body in flames. "Eggman Nega... I'll make you pay..." She muttered.

But soon the fire around her body subsided and she fell to her knees. It was then she realized how fatigued she was. Forcing herself up once again, she scanned her surroundings for a place where she could sleep. After struggling not to think about the recent events she entered a cave and, after concluidng it was safe, she curled herself into a ball and, after a few minutes, finally drifted into sleep, while hugging the case that held the emeralds responsible for all this.

* * *

 **End of Chapter 1**

Leave a review please!


	2. Chapter 1

**Hello. May I ask for a quick review if you like the story? If you have the time, please don't forget it, it's important for me. Thanks!**

 **I don't own Sonic.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Fated meeting.**

"DAMN IT!" The man slammed his fist in the desk with full force, and after a few seconds he slammed it again, over and over again, each time with less force. "Damn it! Damn it. Damn it..."

Tired, and with his hand in pain, he stopped and took a moment to breathe. He looked at the monitor again. His target had escaped. The power he seeked for years, the power to control his dimension slipped away from his fingers.

He gritted his teeth. He would never have expected her enemy to have a dimensional portal in her castle. And that simple miscalculation proved to be his failure. Clenching his fists, he got up, feeling hot all of a sudden. He picked up a control and activated the air conditioner. With the cold making him feel slightly calmer, he sat back at his computer, breathing in and out heavily.

He tipped his finger in the keyboard, unsure about what to do. He had to locate the princess and the emeralds he wanted, but he had no idea how. She could have gone everywhere, and he didn't know where to start.

He had to, somehow, get the coordinates from the transporter. That way he could track the princess down and find the best way to retrive the emeralds. But there were a few problems.

One of them were that the princess could have been sent, by accident, to a dimension where time passes diferently from him own. For example, if in that dimension a second was equal to a hundred years in his world, the emerald were last forever.

Another problem would be if she went to Sonic's dimension. If that were the case, she would have plenty of friends who would be able to help her protect the emeralds. Not just that, but he would be racing against his counterpart to collect that source of power.

Finally, his other problem was Silver. The hedgehog had somehow survivedn ad he managed to escape somehow. Knowing his enemy was alive and that he was missing was a problem, and Eggman Nega couldn't ignore that, no matter how injured the telekinetic was. He feared a surprise attack, and no one could blame him. Every dokan he knew was a threat to his plans, and the silver hedgehog was no exception.

Hopefully, his best chance would be that she was in Sonic's dimension. Despite all problems, he at least would know for sure the emeralds were safe and he could plan a way to retrieve them.

Thankfully, his robots were still on the castle. He sent one of them to analyse the portal's coordinates, and the machine obeyed without delay. It was one of the robots in the room Blaze escaped from. Even though the portal was closed, the robot could scan the particles altered by the distortion of the time and space that sent Blaze to another dimension, and with that he could know for sure where she was. It would take time, but he had no other choice.

As the robot did it's job, Eggman Nega left his headquarters. He needed some fresh air. He stood on a plataform that lifted him up to the roof, where he enjoyed the view. Even though his laboratory was well hidden, he still had a great scenerio around him. Trees, landscapes, a big lake... In his opinion that was the best place he could have found to build his empire.

A robot brought him a glass of water. The doctor took the glass and gave a huge sip on it, nearly drinking everything. He then started to think. He needed to find a way to get the emeralds and destroy his opponents, so that no one could stop him. But it wasn't that simple. The reason he failed after all these years is because the emeralds were well-protected, and simple machinery wasn't enough. He should have understood that after years of loss, but he thought that by designing and throwing new robot at them wasn't the solution.

In the end, he just wasted resources, time, and, most of all, his brilliant intelect in something bound to fail.

That frustrated him to no ends. He decided once and for all that he would get rid of his enemies, and he would but every single brain cell of his to put and end to this. But he questioned himself if he would be able to it.

No matter how intelligent he was, he worked alone. And he was the biggest genius from his dimension, so he couldn't just ask for someone's help. As much as it pained him to admit it, the lack of someone as intelligent as him was what a huge factor for his constant failures. He had no one to discuss him plans or even to talk to. It was lonely, but it was the path he chose.

It was then that it hit him.

He actually knew someone as talented as him. He knew there would be someone who would help him, and that had common enemies. That sudden realization made all kinds of plans to pop up in his head. He smiled. He knew who to contact.

After returning to his laboratory, he confirmed his expectations. He stared at the screen with a huge smile as he noticed that the robot had sent him the data he needed.

His target went to the dimension he feared. Sonic's dimension. But that wasn't a problem. He had a plan. A plan that couldn't fail. He picked up a communicator. A device he had actually never used before. He then used chaos energy to allow the communication between other dimensions. When the other person picked the phone up, he spoke, smiling deviously.

"Hello, my counterpart."

* * *

Slowly, her eyes opened up. She covered them with her arm, protecting them from the blinding light. Slowly she got up and found herself in the middle of a cave. Her surroundings soon made her remember why she was there, all dirty and totally messed up. She sighed, still tired from yesterday's events. She rubbed her eyes. They hurt. Perhaps because of how much she cried.

She left the cave. The sun made her admire her surroundings, something she couldn't do when she arrived. Not just because it was dark, but also because all that was in her mind was a certain tragic image when she arrived. The memories came back, and a sharp pain in her heart came along. The only reason she didn't cry was because she had no tears left. The fact that she was terribly tired didn't help either.

"I can't think about that right now... I need to find help."

Giving small slaps at herself, she looked up with determination. She then dashed forward, looking for civilization. She knew she wouldn't be able to figure out where she was by herself. She was at a foreign dimension after all.

Last time she went there, she was sent directly at Sonic's town. This time, however, there was no time to calculate with precision where she would end up. So there she was, in the middle of nowhere.

She cursed her luck as she jumped trees and rocks. She was glad she was so agile and precise at jumping though. Being a cat and a guardian of the Sol emeralds were factors that helped her, at an early age, in becoming able to overcome places like that without difficulty. She could jump, run and fight for hours. Obviously not as much as Sonic, for example. But she took pride in her skills.

Despite that, she felt that she had to hurry. Even though she was in a forest and was surrounded by many things that looked like food, she wouldn't be able to know what she could eat or not. There were all kinds of animals, fruits and plants, and eating them without care would be a foolish move. She could end up poisoned, gravely sick, or even dead. Considering how lucky she was in the last few days, that was perfectly possible and likely to happen if she wasn't careful.

If she felt hunger, that meant her end.

After minutes of running and jumping around, she felt thirsty. Luckily for her, she spotted a small lake. "Thank goodness... water"

She approached the lake and without a second thought she took a handful of it's water and drank it. She did it until she was satisfied, which took quite some time. Feeling refreshed, she glanced at her reflection in the water. She looked terrible. She was all dirty, had a few cuts and bruises everywhere, her clothers were damaged and her eyes were still puffy and red from all the crying. She looked, in her opinion, like a ghost girl from a horror movie. If her situation wasn't so shitty, she would have laughed at how funny she looked.

She had enough of staring at her terrible reflection, so she decided to take her leave. The faster she hurried to find her friends and asked for their help, the faster she would be able to defeat her dreaded enemy and protect her people. Then again, she couldn't stand being all dirty, sweaty and smelly. She was royalty. After an internal conflict, she decided to clean herself really fast before continuing her journey. Looking around quite often for possible peepers, she removed her clothes and splashed some water on them.

After feeling they were clean enough, she hang them in a tree next to the case with the emeralds and jumped inside the water. She wouldn't risk standing naked in an unknown forest. What if a native showed up? She'd never marry anyone.

The water wasn't so cold, so she was able to relax. She closed her eyes as the fresh water cleaned her very soul. She felt she could sleep there, so she hurried to clean herself properly. She couldn't bring herself to relax while her people needed her.

After some time, she decided she was good enough to go. Before leaving the water, she looked around one more time and hurried outside. She quickly wore her still wet clothes, got her case and went back to jumping and running. There was no time to waste.

She moved aimlessly for what seemed like hours. No matter how many trees, rocks and swaps she avoided, she seemed to always end up in the same place. Annoyed, she climbed a very big tree and ran to its to, from which she jumped and landed safely on the ground. Much to her displeasure, she recognized a few trees around her, and that added to her stress since she was, yet again, in a familiar place. She gritted her teeth. "I need to leave this goddamn forest!" She blasted off.

She ran, jumped, crouched, rolled, and more. She seemed to get lost with each step. And she even considered giving up at one point. Tiredness returning her, she pushed herself to her limits to be able to endure that forest.

She stopped for a while when something caught her attention.

"What's that light up ahead?"

The forest she was in was dense, and there were so many trees that it was very poorly iluminated. When she spotted the light ahead of her, she concluded that she had reached the end of the forest. Smiling and anxious, she hurried to the light.

She was right. The forest had ended, and thankfully had was able to leave without problems. Not a single time she felt herself in danger, and it didn't take her much of her time to leave in the end. A few hours wouldn't hurt.

But all that was ahead of her was a road, and she was still soaking wet. Not just that, but the sun was intense, and she felt even more lost than before. In other words, her situation still wasn't the best.

But to see a road in front of her meant that there was a civilization somewhere. Animals couldn't have made thar road, after all. Soon, confirming her thoughts, a few cars appeared.

Happiness overwhelming her, she asked for a ride by making a sign with her hand, but the passing cars didn't even stop. She asked herself who on earth wouldn't stop for a beautiful girl. Then she reminded how awful she looked a while back. Despite being a bit cleaner at the moment, that didn't make for the fact that she was still soaked in water and not with the best of appearances. Sighing, she kept motioning for passing cars, but had no luck. She ears fell in disappointment with every passing car.

As she watched the cars distance themselves from her, worry once again haunted her, as she imagined how her people were suffering without her and the emeralds. She was losing precious time, and that was stressing her.

She was nearly giving up and running the goddamn road all by herself when a car slowed down. Her ears even turned upwards in excitement. A window rolled down and an old woman at the passenger's seat smiled at Blaze. "Hello dear. Need a ride to the city?"

Blaze beamed on the inside "Yes, please!"

"Well then hop in, sweetie." She motioned for Blaze to enter the back door, which she happily did. As she entered, she noticed that along with the old woman there was and old man driving the car, who turned back and smiled at her.

"Well, hello there, young one. What's your name?" He pulled his hat in a polite way. Blaze nodded and smiled.

"Hello sir, my name is Blaze. What's yours?"

"I'm David and this is my wife, Monica." He pointed to the old woman "Now, may I ask where you're headed?"

Blaze's eyes widened a little, as she realized she had no idea where she had to go or where she was. She scratched her head awkwardly.

"Well... Actually, I... I'm a bit lost so... I don't know for sure where I am..." The old couple faced her with concern

"Are you alright?" The man asked.. The woman looked at him "Honey, start the car. Let me talk to her." The man nodded and soon the car started moving again.

The woman turned to Blaze "Where are you from?"

 _"Damn!"_ Blaze thought. Those questions were getting her nowhere, and she couldn't answer them without making herself look stupid by telling the couple she was a queen in another dimension. As if they would believe a terrible looking cat.

"Ahh... Well, it's hard to explain... But I must get to..." The name of Sonic's town suddenly appearing in her head. "I guess it's called... Square State, or something?"

The old man chuckled "I guess you mean Station Square? Hehehe." Blaze blushed in embarrasment.

"Um... Yes, that's the place. Is it far from here?" She asked. The woman smiled

"Not really honey. It's an hour or two from here. We are headed there, actually." Blaze seemed relieved.

"Can you take me there then, please?" The woman giggled

"Of course sweetie. Just relax a bit and take it easy. You look pretty tired after all."

Blaze nodded at looked through the window. Fatigue getting the best of her, she fought not to fall asleep. But she failed. She closed her eyes and was soon overwhelmed with all kinds of thoughts.

She thought of her kingdom. Of Silver. Of Gardon. Of Marine. Of her people. Sonic and his friends. Of Nega being defeated. She smiled at that thought. She smiled at the thought of a future without him. A future where peace would reign in her dimension. Where she would be happy.

She thought of getting married one day. A kingdom needs a king after all. She knew no men though. And she didn't even know what falling in love was, since all she worried about were her precious emeralds and the great responsibility they bestowed on her. She wish she could be a little more... normal.

Her friend Marine, for example, mocked her for not being very girly at all. Blaze never wore dresses or skirts, and she wasn't fond of things like gossiping, shopping or attending parties. She always had a quiet personality and liked fighting, and to a childish girl like Marine, that was boring. Blaze never really tried being more social or girlish at all. But at times like these, where she was alone and had no one to talk to except a couple of strangers, she imagined herself at least being a bit social.

The only close friends she had were Marine and Silver though. Not only they were dokans like her, but they also spent more time with her than anyone else. But they themselves also had their lifes, and Marine often disappeared a few days to find an adventure or to improve her ship building skills. As for Silver, he also disappeared often to train his abilities and a telekinetic, and also to protect the citizens of Blaze's kingdom.

But now Marine was off somewhere, Silver was dead and she was in the middle of an unknown place. She sighed. Her closest friends were away from her. And there she was, going to ask favors to people she wasn't entirely sure she could call friends. As much as she respected Sonic and his friends, she barely saw them since they were from different dimensions. They wouldn't even have met if they hadn't the same objectives at some point in their lives.

Sonic considered her a friend of his, though. He treated her the same way as he treated his closest friends, and she couldn't help but feel flattered by it. She also respected him, and now, more than ever, she needed him. Deep down, she hoped she could become closer friends with him and everyone else.

Thump!

Blaze slowly opened her eyes. The car had just ran into a small hole in the road, which made her and the car itself to jump a little. Startled, she had a confused and sleepy look in her face as she looked through the window. The old woman noticed it and looked back, smiling.

"I'm sorry dear, did that wake you up?" She looked at Blaze questioningly. The cat shook her head, trying to sound a bit more awakened. "No, no. It's fine, really."

Blaze then looked through the window with a bit more attention. "How long have I been asleep?"

The woman turned to her husband and repeated the question. "Dear?" The old man took his attention away from the road for a second and glanced at his watch.

"Well, let's see... If I'm not mistaken it's been an exact hour since then. We are about to arrive at Station Square."

At this, Blaze's drowziness vanished and was replaced with excitement. Finally, her luck was starting to show up. She looked forward and saw the city appearing from the landscape. Happy, her ears pointed upwards and she had to control her tail so it wouldn't move awkwardly. She noticed the man said something to her, but she was distracted.

"Excuse me, what did you say?"

The man smiled "I asked where should we take you. Do you live nearby?"

"Oh, no no. Anywhere is fine actually. I'm not very familiar with this city myself." She said politely. The man seemed curious.

"May I ask what is your business in this town?"

"David!" The old woman glared furiously at her husband "It's not polite to dwell into someone's life! Apologize right now!"

Blaze shook her hands defensively. "It's okay maam, really. I'm just looking for my... friends. They live in this city."

"Oh, I see." The man seemed relaxed for some reason. Perhaps he got a little suspicious, but that was cleared. "Sorry for making that question."

Blaze smiled "It's ok."

Before she noticed, they entered the town and were already stuck in traffic. The man sighed in annoyance, but turned to Blaze with a smile.

"Where do your friends live?"

Not again.

More questions she couldn't answer. Blaze decided it was time to take her leave. She had bothered the old couple for too long.

"Actually, I recognize this area. They live pretty close by, so you can leave me here." She lied. The old woman looked at her worryingly

"Are you sure you don't want us to take you there? I hear it's quite dangerous here."

Blaze shook her head "It's fine, really. Thanks a lot to both of you, I hope I can repay your kindness someday."

"Don't worry about it." The man smiled. "It was a pleasure young lady, have a safe walk!"

"Have a good day sweetie! Be careful!"

Blaze thanked both of them again and left the car. The traffic light turned green and soon the car took off, leaving the purple cat behind. She was where she had to be. Now she had to find Sonic. She looked at a giant clock in a random building. It would be night soon.

 _"I wonder where he is right now..."_

She thought before crossing the street and walking aimlessly in search of the blue hero.

* * *

"Man, I'm starving!" The blue hedgehog exclaimed as he placed his hands in his belly, in which his stomach started making awkward sounds. A fox next to him rolled his eyes."

"Sonic, you've said that five times in the last ten minutes!" The fox said, exasperated.

Sonic looked offended "But I really am hungry Tails! And to make things worse, the chillidog stand didn't show up today!" A look of sadness and disappointment appeared on his face.

"Oh, please." A red equidna said. "Can we leave this guy here and go by ourselves?"

Amy, who was talking to Cream next to them, stopped immediately at those words and fumed. "We're not leaving Sonic!"

"Seriously?" The equidna seemed dumbfounded. He couldn't believe in the fact that they hanged out with Sonic, but he also questioned himself at why he was there too, to start with.

"Aww Knux, I love you too man!" Sonic smirked, which made the equidna grunt in annoyance. Tails ignored them and turned to the girls.

"Where should we eat, girls? Sushi Plaza again?"

The group of four was walking through the streets of the commercial area of Station Square. Feeling quite hungry himself, Tails suggested to Sonic that they should invite some people to eat outside. So, there they were.

"Well, I was thinking maybe we should go to a different place today." Cream started "We're too used to eating there"

Amy nodded in approval "I like this idea! A change is good every once in a while. But where should we go?"

"Let's go to Wc Donalds" Knuckles said. Amy frowned.

"No way, the food there will make us fat!"

Sonic looked at them "What about the Taco world? Nothing beats a good taco! Well, except a chillidog!"

Cream shook her head. " I don't really like tacos."

"How about we go to that famous restaurant today?" Tails suggested

"Which one Tails?" Sonic asked. Tails looked up trying to remember the name.

"That one who appeared on the news on the other day... what was it called...? Oh yeah! Its Baratie!"

Sonic snapped his finger "Oh, I know that one! But are you sure? I heard things there are pretty expensive. "

"Not really Sonic." The fox said as he checked some info on his phone. "It says here that the place is famous for it's cheap prices, the excellent food and... the waitresses?"

Sonic and Knuckles eyes's widened as they looked at each other. "We're going to that one!" They said in unison. The three others crossed their arms.

"I'm not sure I want to go there now!" Amy stated with a frown on her face. Cream followed "Me either.!

"Come on! Cheap prices? Excellent food?" Sonic pleaded.

"Waitresses!" Knuckles followed, but didn't realize he wasn't helping. The frown on the trio's faces didn't change.

Cream pointed somewhere "We should go there!"

The others turned around and what they saw was a restaurant called "Unicorn Paradise." Amy smiled happily, but the others didn't seem as enthusiastic.

"Nice, Cream! Let's go!" Arm in arm, the hedgehog and the rabbit started walking towards the restaurant.

Sonic ran after them. "Hey, wait!" He caught up with them. "We didn't agree on that one."

"Please, Sonic! It's way better than the one you guys want to go." Amy threw her hands up in exasperation.

Tails approached everyone. "But it's not fair, girls. We should all go to a place where all of us can have fun."

The girls looked at him incredulously, but then sighed, knowing he was right. Cream faced him. "Where then, Tails?"

The fox considered her words for a few moments and then turned to everyone with a smile. "What about that one?"

Everyone turned back and they saw a place called 'My Sweet Gluttony'. From the windows they could see it was a simple, yet nice place. Everyone seemed satisfied with the choice.

"I'm okay with that one. You guys?" Sonic turned to the others questioningly. Everyone nodded and he smiled "Then let's go!"

The group entered the restaurant and they were greeted with the cold and nice air from the air conditioner. Classic piano music on the background, and a simple yet beautiful decoration: A few paintings on the wall, vases with roses on the tables and the walls painted in white. As they scanned the place, a waiter approached them and bowed politely.

"Greetings. Table for five?"

The group nodded and the waiter motioned for them to follow him. They were escorted to a table next to the wall, and they soon sat down. Even the chairs were pretty confortable. The waiter handed a few menus to them as he pulled a little paper from his pocket along with a pen. "What would you like to drink?"

"Beer, please." Sonic said.

Knuckles nodded "I'll take a beer."

"A chaos cola, please" Tails said. Amy raised her hand

"We want two orange juices please."

The waiter nodded and wrote everything down. He then left and the group engaged in conversation.

"Pretty cool place, huh?" Knuckles scanned the area once again.

Cream nodded "It's a beautiful place. I can't wait to eat!"

"Me too! What are you going to eat, Cream?" Tails asked. The rabbit looked once again at the menu.

"I guess some fries with chesse and bacon. What about you?"

The fox looked at the menu as well "I guess I'll get the same. Not in the mood for burgers today."

"Hey, why don't we share one then?" Cream suggested. Tails looked at her with a blush. Both took this as something boyfriends and girlfriends did together, and Cream ended up blushing as well. "I-I mean, it'll be less expensive..."

"Y-Yeah." Tails looked down, fighting against a blush. He moved his eyes to meet Cream's. He summoned all of his courage. "I wouldn't mind sharing, Cream."

Both blushed even more. Sonic started chuckling. "That's so cute, you two!"

"S-Shut up!" Tails frowned as he still fought against his raging blush. Cream just looked elsewhere in embarrasment.

Amy brought her hands to her chest. "Awwwn! You two would be such a cute couple!"

"Can you please stop?!" Tails blushed even more, getting a bit angry. Just then, the waiter arrived with their drinks. He opened his can of cola and drank a few of it to calm himself down.

Deciding that he teased the poor fox enough, Sonic coughed on purpose to get everyone's attention. "Anyway guys, have you seen this?"

He pulled a paper from his pocket. Everyone's eyes widened.

"Hey... Isn't that... Shadow?" Amy asked, surprised.

Cream seemed just as surprised. "He has a bounty? Wait, does that mean he's alive?"

Sonic shook his head "I don't think he is. I mean, he can't be, right?"

"Who knows?" Knuckles frowned "That guy was crazy strong."

"No matter how strong he was, I don't think someone would survive an explosion in outer space." Tails gave another gulp on his cola "Even if he survived that, he couldn't possibly survive without oxygen."

Amy shrugged "Then what about this bounty?"

"Maybe it's from when G.U.N still considered him a threat." Knuckles stated. Amy turned to him.

"But then why would these still be hanging around?"

"Beats me." The equidna drank his beer and got silent.

Just then, they heard a loud sound, and they immediately turned to the door. They saw two men using masks. One of them was tall and bulky, and was holding a gun upwards, smoke coming out of its cane. The other was short and fat, but also held a gun.

Two police officers who were eating dinner immediately got up and pointed their guns at the thieves. "Freeze! Don't move or we'll shoot!"

Screams of fear echoed in the restaurant as the music stopped. The tall man started yelling as shot the gun upwards once more.

"Put those down we'll kill these people!" He then pointed his gun at a random guy, while the fat thief pulled a second gun and pointed it at a woman, while the other remained pointed at the officers. Gritting their teeth, the officers raised their hands and let go of their guns. They then kicked them away. Satisfied, one bandit turned to everyone.

"LISTEN UP! I want everything you guys have, NOW! Money, jewels, EVERYTHING! And be fast if you don't want to die!"

The two men then started moving slowly, changing their aim as they moved. The customers raised one hand in fear as they used the other to take their belongings and place them in the table. The bandits then came and placed the people's items in a large bag.

At Sonic's table, Amy and Cream hugged each other in fear. They were trembling and were on verge of tears. Cream grabbed the necklace she got from her mother and pressed it against her, fearing for it.

Tails just stared as the bandits robbed the innocent people, in a mix of anger and fear. He started sweating and breathing heavily, somehow wishing he could do something to stop what was happening. But fearing for his life, he just watched.

Sonic and Knuckles, on the other hand, glared at the bandits with anger, raising their hands solely for protecting their friends from harm. They were just waiting for the right opportunity to move and give the bandits a good lesson.

But their expressions changed when someone appeared from the kitchen doors.

From the corner of his eyes, the tall bandit saw someone was approaching him slowly, he quickly turned and pointed the gun at the person. "Stop right there!" He yelled. He felt a slight pain on his mouth, but ignored it.

What he saw was a dark hedgehog in a suit. Th hedgehog had a cigarrete in his mouth and was looking through the window on his left as he walked. He raised a hand to his mouth and extended the other to the bandit. "Shh. Here, take these."

Curious, the bandit drifted his attention to the hedgehog's hand, all the while ignoring the crescent pain in his mouth. The hedgehog's hand opened.

"They're your teeth."

It was then that the pain in the bandit's mouth became unbearable, and his eyes widened in terror as he saw the numerous teeth soaked in blood in the hedgehog's hand. To his surprise and horror, he scanned his mouth with his tongue and he confirmed that the dozens of teeth in front of him were his own.

Feeling the taste of blood in his tongue and totally confused with what was going on, the bandit opened his mouth to let out a scream, but was roughly interrupted by the hedgehog's foot, who slammed his face in the wall and tapped his mouth.

"Shut the hell up. Or do you want to try the ribs next?"

Finally noticing what was going on, the other bandit looked with surprise as he saw his partner being pressed at the wall by a hedgehog. The moment he pointed his gun at the hedgehog, he saw a flash of red light, and the last thing he saw before falling to the ground was the hedgehog standing in front of him, his gun flying meters away from him and the arm he used to hold it broken in several places.

He grabbed his broken arm with his good one and shrieked in pain as he rolled on the ground. A sudden foot pressed his mouth, and his scream became muffled. The hedgehog brought one hand to his cigarette and pulled it out from his mouth, while exhaling some smoke. He then looked deep in the bandit's eyes.

"I don't like when garbage like you cause trouble in my restaurant." He applied more strenght to his foot, nearly breaking the bandit's skull, who was full aware that would happen. "Now, you'll never come here again, or that'll be the last thing you'll do."

The hedgehog then turned to the police officers, who watched the scene in bewilderment. "Take these with you." He said and kicked the bandit in front of him at the officers direction. As his foot reached the ground again, he kicked the other bandit with his other foot. He then threw his cigarette away and walked back to the kitchen, disappearing from view.

Everyone, still confused and shocked at the scene, slowly went back to talking and discussing what just happened, when a fat man appeared.

"Caham. Excuse me, everyone. My name is Zeff, and I am the owner of this restaurant. I'd like to personally apologize for the strong and unpleasant moment we just had here. If you come here, I'll gladly return your belongings." He then picked up the bags with the stolen items. "I just hope we can ignore this inconvenience and move on. We have delicious food prepared with all care, so please, enjoy your stay and a few discounts as an apology."

Zeff then opened the bag and slowly people came to him to retrieve their belongings. A few of them left the restaurant afterwards, still taken aback from the event. Other returned to their seats and resumed talking.

At Sonic's table, since no one was robbed, they just stood there, still surprised. They weren't really surprised at the scene, since that would have happened if Sonic and Knuckles had the chance to get them.

What surprised them was the hedgehog involved.

Before they could talk about it, the same hedgehog left the kitchen one again. He was drying his hands on a small towel as he walked, and when they were done he placed some gloves on them.

After a few moments, the hedgehog finally spotted the group, and his expression changed from emotionlessly serious to slightly surprised.

 _"No fucking way... What are they doing here...?!"_ Shadow thought as he faced the countless gazes aimed at him. He furrowed his brow, knowing he wouldn't be able to simply ignore them now and pretend they weren't there. He sighed and slowly moved to their table. As he got there, everyone looked as if they had seem a ghost.

"...Shadow?" Tails asked, still a bit shocked.

 _"No, I'm the fucking Santa. Stupid fox..."_ Shadow thought, but said nothing. He remained emotionless until Sonic spoke.

"You've gotta be kidding me..." Sonic shook his head in disbelief. He then got up with a smile. "You're alive, Shad!"

"No shit, sherlock." Shadow furrowed his brows "And don't call me that, faker."

Knuckles frowned "How the hell are you alive?"

Shadow shrugged. He was clearly getting annoyed at being treated like a ghost. Cream decided to try lightening the mood.

"Mr. Shadow... It's good to know you're alive!" Cream smiled a little.

Amy followed her, knowing what she was trying to do. "Yeah! We're glad you are ok!"

Shadow seemed surprised at this. He didn't expect anyone to care about his 'death' or his disappearance. He questioned if he should acknowledge what they said as true, but he ended up doing it. He wasn't in the mood to doubt two girls, one being a kid.

"Thanks..." He said with difficulty. It wasn't a word he was used to saying. "Anyway, got any orders?

Tails smiled "You work here, Shadow? How cool!"

Shadow faced the fox questioningly. He couldn't imagine what was so cool about working in a restaurant. Attending people is totally annoying to Shadow, and he had to endure it. He thought of how he liked cooking. It wasn't COOL, but it was satisfying.

Sonic smiled. "Shad, do you have chillidogs?"

"Yes, and once again, don't call me that!"

Sonic raised his hands defensively. "Hey, chill man. Bring me five of those, ok?"

Shadow grunted, but ended up nodding. He turned to the others. "You?"

"Can you get us some fries? With cheese and some bacon, if possible. I'm sharing it with Cream." Tails said, feeling the need to say that last part for some reason. Cream blushed slightly, while Amy giggled and the others contained some laughter. Shadow raised his eyebrow.

"You two dating?"

Tails and Cream both blushed heavily, while Sonic and Knuckles laughed hard. Amy giggled louder, and soon brought a hand to her mouth to prevent herself from laughing. Tails frowned, still red as a tomato.

"N-No! We're not dating, ok?!"

Shadow shrugged. "Sure kid. Anything else?"

Tails frowned angrily and crossed his arms. Shadow turned to Knuckles and Amy.

Knuckles glanced at the menu "Gimme a X-Egg burger."

Shadow nodded. He then faced Amy, who still seemed a bit indecise.

"I'm not sure... I want something sweet... Tell the cook to surprise me, Shadow." She winked at him. He sweatdropped.

"I'm the cook."

She seemed confused. "You're not the waiter?"

"I'm a bit of everything. Now, If you'll excuse me." He took his leave.

Amy looked incredulously "Did you see that? He was actually polite!" She then remembred how harsh he was with Sonic and rolled her eyes "Well, kinda."

"I'm glad he's fine." Cream smiled.

"Me too." Sonic grinned "I like having an actual rival!"

Tails rolled his eyes. "I thought you had a lot of rivals?"

"Yeah, but Shadow's my arch-rival! I mean, wtf? He's exactly like me!"

"He's stronger than you." Knuckles smirked. "I couldn't even see his attack back there."

"That means nothing!"

Amy giggled "Good to know you're happy Sonic." She got up "I'm going to the bathroom. Excuse me!" She then left towards the ladies's room.

The group kept talking until Shadow came back with their orders. He placed the tray with the fries next to Cream, then handed the plate with chillidogs to Sonic and placed Knuckles's burger next to him. He was about to place Amy's tray in then noticed the pink hedgehog was missing.

"Where's the girl?

"Returning from the bathroom now." Cream pointed at her.

Shadow pondered for a few moments. Perhaps that would be a good time to put that gentleman's practice in action. He didn't feel like it, but he saw Zeff was looking. He had to make this look good.

As Amy arrived at the table, Shadow pulled her chair for her, much to her amusement. "Why, thanks, Shadow!" She sat down, feeling delighted. Nodding, he placed a tray in front of her.

"Well, for you I made a Fruit Macèdoine with ice cream and chantilly."

Amy gasped at the bowl in front of her. It had her favorite fruits, including strawberries, grapes, oranges and more. Around the perfectly cut fruits there was ice cream that, in her opinion, looked like it was pineapple flavored. The borders of the bowl had chocolate and strawberry covers, and on top of it there was some chantilly and tiny pieces of broken biscuits. Without wasting time, she filled her spoon with fruits and ate it.

"Oh. My. God. Shadow!" She widened her eyes and stared at him in disbelief.

"What, you didn't like it?" He questioned. He couldn't read her expression, and if after all his hard work she said it wasn't good, he'd be angry.

"This is soooooo delicious!" She ate some more "I never ate something as good as this!"

After bringing another full spoon on her mouth, Amy started crying. Shadow's eyes widened, and so did everyone's. The dark hedgehog placed his hand on her shoulder. "H-Hey, what is it?"

"Uhh... I'm gonna get so fat..." She sobbed, eating yet another full spoon of the dessert.

Shadow sighed and so did everyone. He was relieved it wasn't anything he did, but now he had to keep being chivalrous. Zeff's words ringed in his head. 'Men who can't wipe the tears from women's eyes aren't real men!'

He frowned. He couldn't understand that, but he felt uncomfortable leaving a girl crying, even if for the silliest reason. Sighing, he brought one finger to her face and gently wiped the tear from her eye. She looked at him surprised, but he remained serious "Don't cry. I'm, uh, sure you won't get fat or anything. So cheer up, ok?"

Amy blushed slightly and nodded. She started playing with her quills. "I didn't know you were a gentleman, Shadow!" She gave him a coy smile. Knuckles hit Sonic's arm.

"He's totally better than you." The equidna smirked, amused at the black hedgehog's behavior.

Sonic frowned, somehow feeling jealous that Amy wasn't giving him attention, but was to Shadow. Not just that, but Knuckles's comment got to him. Shadow, better than him? No way. We wasn't going to lose to his arch rival, specially on that matter.

He was about to say something to Shadow when he gave a bite on his chillidog. His eyes lit up and he felt he was in heaven.

"Wow, Shadow, you made these?" Sonic exclaimed, as he placed more pieces of a chillidog in his mouth. "These're the best I ever ate man! Wanna be my personal cook?!" He proposed, completely forgetting about his jealousy from a second before.

Shadow gave Sonic a look that said 'are you fucking shitting me?', and Sonic smirked. "Guess not, huh."

"It's really good, thanks, Mr. Shadow!" Cream said, eating some fries.

"Glad you liked. Anything else I can do for you?"

"I'm fine for now. Thanks!"

Nodding, Shadow returned to the kitchen. He couldn't help but give himself a little smile. He went better than he anticipated. And he couldn't say it wasn't nice to serve them and see how they liked his food.

He still had to improve some things, but he was glad he didn't mess up or acted like a total jerk to the girls. He was improving as a person, and that made him and his mentor glad.

After checking the clock, he noticed the restaurant would close soon. He got back to work, and thought about that table for some time. He didn't think he would feel like that, but he didn't regret letting them know he was alive.

* * *

Shadow cleaned his hands at he pullled a cigarette and lighted it up. He took of his appron and left the kitchen, saying good bye to his boss and the other cooks. As he left the restaurant, he spotted a familiar group, who turned to face him with a smile. Amy waved her hand "Hey, Shadow! Come here!"

Reluctant, the hedgehog approached the group once more. Sonic spoke up. "Hey man. Knuckles left already, but we just wanted to say that it's good to have you back, and that maybe we could hang out someday." Sonic tapped Shadow's shoulder. The dark hedgehog faced each one and was greeted with many smiles. He nodded.

Sonic grinned. "Well, that was it! See you later, faker!" He then dashed forward, leaving Shadow and the others behind. Shadow frowned at the comment, but soon turned to Tails, who poked his arm.

"We'll take our leave too. See you later, Shadow!"

"Bye Mr. Shadow! The food was delicious!" Cream said, following after Tails

"Bye Bye, Shadow!" Amy winked at him, then followed the other two. Shadow just waved at them and walked to the opposite direction. He glanced back once and saw the group slowly getting farther away from him until they finally disappeared from view. Turning back, he inhaled a bit more of his cigarette and let out some smoke soon afterwards, as he walked through the calm dark streets.

As he walked, he noticed a few bricklayers remodelling the street he was about to go, and one of them told him to take a detour. Shadow frowned, but ended up turning on another street. He didn't feel like arguing right now. He was tired from work, and all he wanted right now was to get home, take off his suit and watch TV until he fell asleep. Without noticing, he got lost in thoughts.

Until he heard a scream. A girl's scream.

Alarmed, he rushed to the street the scream came from and spotted a few men surrounding someone. It was a girl, and she had a suitcase in her arms. She hugged it with all her strenght, protecting it from the grasp of one of the men.

Shadow gritted his teeth in anger, and without thinking twice he blasted off to their direction. He buried his foot in one of the man's face, breaking it and sending his body flying a few meters. He then kneeled one of them right in the stomach with a lot of strenght, making him fall to his knees in pain. One man tried to attack Shadow from behind, but he kicked the man's cheek with a spinning kick, knocking him out as he fell hard on the ground.

The last man, who was still suffering from Shadow's kick in his belly, tried to pull a knife, but Shadow noticed it. He kicked the back of the man's neck, slamming his face on the ground. With all men out. Shadow inhaled from his cigarette one last time before throwing it away. As he opened his mouth to let the smoke out, he turned to the girl.

It was a cat girl with lavender fur. She had golden eyes and a red jewel on her fore head. She wore a purple outfit with white pants, but they were dirty and torn. Shadow offered his hand to help the cat up. She stared at his hand for a few seconds before accepting it. When she got up they stared at each other for some moments, until she broke the silence.

"Who are you?" She asked, a bit demanding.

"I'm Shadow the Hedgehog. You?"

The cat's eyes widened slightly. His rich voice gave her goosebumps.

"I'm Blaze the Cat."

* * *

 **End of Chapter One**

 **That's it for now. Like it? Then REVIEW PLS. I need to know if you're liking or I won't continue this.**


	3. Chapter 2

**Hi, I'm glad you're enjoying this story! I'm having fun writing it. Well, let's keep going!**

 **Oh, before that, some of you might have already noticed, but I'm a great fan of ? ?. The character ? is my inspiration for this story, Shadow's job and even my own job. If you haven't watched ? ?, I highly recommend you to. It's great and it'll change your life.**

 **Now here's the challenge. Can you figure out what the interrogation points mean? ( not this one, of course) Review if you find out which character inspired me. Remember: Each (?) Represents one word! So think well!**

 **I don't own Sonic the hedgehog.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Regret**

"I'm Blaze the Cat." She answered, her golden eyes locked in his dead ruby ones. The poorly illuminated streets made the man almost impossible to see, due to his dark fur. His emotionless gaze was somehow too intense, and she ended up turning her head away. Her gaze drifted to the unconscious and severely wounded men on the ground.

She closed her eyes, feeling ashamed of herself. She roamed through the city for hours since arriving, but she forgot the fact that the city was gigantic, and that finding a hero whose special ability was to run at the speed of sound wasn't as easy as she thought. Not just that, but a single girl, walking alone at night with torn clothes and a suitcase was bound to bring attention to her.

She thought she could handle whatever came at her, but she was still exausted. In the end she couldn't even use her powers to defend herself, and she had to be saved by a total stranger because of her carelessness. She hated to depend on others, because she felt she was dead weight. And depending on someone she didn't know was even more humilliating.

Of course, she appreciated being saved. But as the sole guardian of the most powerful and important items of her whole dimension, not being able to defeat a few bandits made her angry. She felt weak, and for the first time in her life, she felt like she wasn't fit to be the guardian of the emeralds and her dimension. She felt she was nothing.

She fought against some tears. She had to be strong. If not for her, for her people. She breathed in, heavily, and then relaxed a bit before facing the dark hedgehog again, who stood there in silence. She faced him curiously and then looked at the ground, somewhat intimidated by his presence.

She wasn't sure she could trust him. Despite being saved by him, several times on her journey she found wanted posters of a man that undoubtely was the one right in front of her. For a bounty of 500 million, and for the fact that he nearly killed three men with simple kicks made her confirm that the man in front of her was someone she should watch out for. He was clearly dangerous.

But he still saved her.

"Are you ok?" He asked. She quickly snapped out of her thoughts and turned back to him.

"Huh?"

"They were attacking you." He turned his head to the men on the ground. Without moving his head, he stared at her through the corner of his eyes. "Did they hurt you?"

She shook her head. "They didn't. Um, thanks for the help though." She bowed politely.

Shadow faced her with curiosity. There was something about the woman in front of him that was off. She looked like she could've easily gotten rid of the men all by herself. That's the impression he got from her. He knew there was something wrong, but he couldn't tell what that was.

He then eyed her with more attention. She was visually tired, possibly even hungry. Not just that, but she also had cuts and bruises everywhere, and her clothes were a total mess. Shadow knew at that moment that something had happened.

"Who did this to you?" He questioned, obviously referring to the wounds.

Blaze shook her head and forced a smile. "Don't worry about these, It's a long story." She then cleared her throat as she thought of something. "By any chance, do you know anyone called Sonic?"

At this Shadow raised his eyebrow. "He did this to you?"

"What? No, no. I'm just looking for him." Blaze said, a bit confused that someone would suspect Sonic of all people. She got a little more serious. "I assume you know him?"

"I do." He muttered, a frown appearing on his face. He didn't really like talking about his arch-rival, and that was evident evven to Blaze. She had no choice but to inquire him a bit much, though.

"Are you a friend of his?"

"No." He answered. That made clear enough to her that he and Sonic weren't in the best of terms.

Blaze raised an eyebrow "Then you are his enemy?"

He faced her "You could say we're something like rivals." He placed his hands on his pockets "Are you his friend?"

Blaze looked down and hugged herself. "Something like that..." She looked back at him. "Listen, I really need to talk to him. Do you know where I can find him?"

Shadow shook his head. "Can't really help you there. I saw him awhile ago, but I don't think he lives nearby." He stated, matter of factly.

"What makes you think that?" She raised her eyebrow. He shrugged.

"I live in this area for two years and I only ran into him today." He scratched his head. "Same for his friends."

Blaze seemed disappointed as her ears fell down. "I see..." She sighed, unsure about what to do. She turned to Shadow and forced a smile.

"Well, thanks anyway. See you around." She turned her back to him and started walking.

"Wait." He called. "Where are you going by yourself? You'll end up getting attacked again."

She frowned. She hated to admit but he was right. She probably wouldn't be able to defend herself again, but she also felt like she didn't need his help. She didn't want to depend on him.

"I'll be fine. I can take care of myself."

"Oh, can you?" He looked at her smirking. She frowned.

"Yes, I can. Are you doubting me?" She glared at him.

He smirked again, shrugging. "Look kitty, I know this is hard to accept, but you can't do everything by yourself. You'll end up hurt and I can't have that. I'm coming with you."

Her eyes widened "Huh?! What are you talking about?"

Shadow stared at her. "I'll properly escort you to your house before you end up getting yourself killed." He stretched his legs. "Lead the way."

Blaze fumed. "I don't need a baby-sitter! I'm perfectly capable of defending myself, so I don't need your charity." She hissed.

"Seriously? It doesn't matter how strong you are if you are weak right now. Stop being stubborn. You'll end up losing that suitcase."

Blaze was starting to get angry. "You don't even know me! Don't you treat me like a child!"

"I'm treating you like a lady." At this Blaze got confused. He continued. "A man wouldn't leave a woman by herself in a situation like this. I'm trying to help you, you know."

Blaze looked down in embarrasment. "I-I know... I... just don't like to depend on others."

"Don't worry about it." He shrugged. "So, where do you live?"

Blaze started laughing nervously. She scratched her head and looked down. "A-Ah... Well, about that..."

Shadow saw her helpless expression and frowned. "Let me guess, you're lost."

"Uhh... Actually, let's just say I don't live around here, so..."

"You don't have anywhere to go...?

She gave him a helpless look. He sighed. He couldn't believe that girl. "Follow me."

She gave him a confused look "Huh?"

He looked at her through the corner of his eyes. "You're coming to my place."

Blaze's eyes widened and she fought against a blush. "I-It's fine! I can find myself somewhere to stay..."

Shadow looked at her incredulously "Don't be stupid. I'm offering you a place to sleep for free. Also, there aren't any hotels nearby."

She had a puzzled expresion in her face. She was thoughtful, but at the same time, embarrased and confused. She wanted to accept, but feared it would sound strange. Not just that, but she hadn't forgotten about his wanted poster. It could be a trap. She was completely unsure about what to do.

Shadow placed a hand in his pocket and frowned at her. "So? You want it or not?"

She thought even more. What if it was a lie? She had no idea what he could do to her. But then again, he saved her and was even a little kind to her. After some time in silence, she finally turned to him with a serious expression.

"I'm sorry... but I refuse. I don't want to be a bother, and I'm sure I'll be fine by myself. Thank you, though."

Shadow stared at her for some moments before closing his eyes and sighing. "Suit yourself then. But first tell me something."

She turned to his direction. A serious look on her face. "What?"

"Is there any money on that suitcase?"

Blaze felt confused. Why would that matter? Was he trying to rob her? The wanted poster didn't say exactly what was/were his crime(s). He could be a thief, or a rapist, or even a murderer. Hell, with that suit he could even be from the mafia.

"There isn't."

"Do you have any money on you?"

She felt even more suspicious. "I don't."

He pulled his hand out of his pocket and brought it to the pocket on the inside of his suit. He pulled a wallet and picked up a few hundred dollars and handed to Blaze, who stared at it dumbfounded.

"This should be enough to rent a room for a couple of nights." He placed his wallet back into his suit pocket ant pointed towards a street. "There's a hotel 5km from here if you walk straight. I'll take you there."

"Thanks a lot, Shadow. But I can't accept it." She returned the money to him, who looked surprised.

"Why the hell not?" He was starting to get angry. He had absolutely no need to help her, and if he wanted he could have let her since he beat the bandits. He could even have ignored the scene. But he was there, making a fool out of himself trying to help someone who kept kicking him off. He felt he should help her, he didn't know why. But the fact that she wouldn't let him was starting to annoy him.

"It's late, and it's motherfucking dangerous here. You have no money or place to stay, I'm trying to help the fuck out of you here, so tell me, why in hell you can't accept this?!"

Blaze got mad as well. "I'm not a charity case! I'm passing through a hard time, but I don't need your money or your house! I told you already that I can take care of myself, and that I'll manage somehow. Stop being so pushy!"

"Whoa. I'm being pushy?!"

"Yeah! You want to take me everywhere and do everything for me. I'm not a child, and I'm not a parasite who lives getting favors from others! So stop being so annoying and leave me ALONE!"

"FINE!" Shadow threw the money on the ground, visually furious. " All I tried was to be nice and help you, but if you don't want it then the problem is yours! You can go to hell for all I care! Forget I ever said anything to you!" Shadow turned around and stormed away, mad as hell. He kicked a wall nearby, making a loud sound and leaving a huge crack on it. He then kept going away until he finally disappeared from Blaze's view.

Blaze had a surprised expression in her face. She hadn't expected him to get so mad, and that scared her. The crack on the wall just added to her fear. She then slowly looked down at the money on the floor, who fell right into a puddle. She picked the wet dollars and looked at them with regret. Maybe in the end all he wanted was to help her after all.

She felt hungry and tired. And she threw her opportunity to get a place for her to rest thanks to her stubborness and her childishness. Of course, she had the right to refuse his help, but she felt bad for thinking ill of him, and also for saying harsh things. _"...Maybe he wasn't all that bad... And I ruined everything..."_ Her ears fell flat. She was disappointed with herself, and guilt started hurting her.

She looked at the direction the hedgehog pointed for her a few minutes ago, then at the money she picked from the ground. She sighed. She felt like she should apologize, but it was too late. He was gone, and now she was alone again. The street lamp's light started fading, and she felt like she shouldn't stay around there for much longer. Even though she didn't want to, she knew that if she didn't use the money in her hands, she was as good as dead in a few days.

 _"I'm sorry Shadow... I'll make good use of this..."_ She spoke to the hedgehog that was long gone. Using the strenght she had left, she hurried to where Shadow pointed for her to go. Eventually, she found a small hotel and sighed with relief. Luckily she had no problems getting there.

She checked the prices. With the money she had, she could stay two or three nights in the hotel. But she also had to find food, she had to look after her wounds, since she could get an infection, and a way to find Sonic. That would need extra money, so she had to use her money wisely.

Without wasting time, she filled in some papers in the reception and hurried to her room. It was a small, yet efficient room. It had a comfortable bed, a tv, a minibar, an air conditioner and a bathroom. That was all she needed.

She entered the bathroom and closed the door. She let go of her clothes and let herself purr with a nice warm bath. That was clearly way better than a cold lake bath. She felt so refreshed that she could have slept standing. She carefully cleaned her wounds, and removed every trace or dirt, sweat and blood from her body. Totally clean and with a nice smell, she left the box.

Feeling sleepy, she wore her underwear and cleaned her clothes herself, inside the box. She hanged her wet, but clean clothes next to the bathroom window. Before the left the bathroom, she stopped in front of the sink. She stared at her reflection in the mirror. She looked better than when she saw herself in the lake, but she still looked terrible. Her stomach rumbled. She was hungry, and the minibar had nothing inside it. She drank some water from the sink, and after some time, her hunger was at least saciated for the moment. It was a sad view, but she didn't care.

She layed down on the bed. Holy shit, she was so tired. As her weight stimulated the softness from the mattress, she let go a small sound of pleasure and satisfaction. She felt a bit cold, since she had to sleep only in her underwear. She had no choice about it. She covered herself with the warm blankets and suddenly her eyes felt heavy like never before.

She glanced at the alarm clock next to her. It was 23:47 PM. Late, at least for her. Slowly, her eyes closed, and finally after all she had been through in the last few days, she let herself rest. Within seconds, Blaze was sound asleep.

* * *

Shadow arrived at the front of his apartment and slammed the door open. He closed it with just as much strenght, which sent a loud noise throughout the building. He clenched his fists repeatedly. He was still burning with anger.

He pulled a cigarette from his suit pocket, but didn't light it. He had already smoked three in a single day. As much as it calmed him down, he couldn't have one down. He fought against it and placed it back.

He needed to calm down somehow. He looked at his arms, and he could see a faint red aura emanating from him. If it weren't for his inhibitor rings, he would have already used chaos blast somewhere. He now wore four of those rings, two of them on his legs. He grew more powerful, so two weren't enough.

He felt hot. The anger made him sweat. He took of his suit and went to the kitchen. He needed to drink something cold. At the same time, he needed something strong to take his head away from the cursed cat, but alcohol would simply heat him even more from the inside. And he was so angry that he needed something strong. But he hated feeling hot, so he ended up deciding for some soda.

He took a bottle of chaos cola from the counter and immersed it down on his container of liquid nitrogen. He took it off three seconds later and it was good to go. He filled a cup with it and drank it immediately. He felt a little calmer, but was still angry.

Who could blame him? All he did was try to help someone, and the person replied with stubborness. And being stubborn with Shadow when he was trying to do something nice was the recipe for anger. It had been a long time since someone angered him so much. If she weren't a girl Shadow would probably have beaten her to a pulp.

He sighed. He couldn't understand why she refused his help. Yes, maybe he was a little pushy, but he just wanted to help. What kind of man would leave a girl alone on the streets at night? In the end, he couldn't help but feel bad for leaving her there, no matter how angry she made him.

He laid down on his sofa and looked up. What was wrong with him? Why did people hate him? Why couldn't people accept him? Why in hell no matter what he did people kept distancing themselves from him? He frowned as he gave another sip from his soda.

"Stupid humanity... I don't know why I bother saving them." He muttered to himself.

He brought his right fist in front of him and clenched it. The fist that held guns, knives and bombs now only held kitcken items. But moments like these made him regret abandoning his weapons. He didn't throw them away, but he never used them since saving the world. His only weapon now were his feet.

He got up from the sofa and climbed the stairs to his coverage. Standing on top of his building he let the cold air hit his face. He looked down at the city. Many lights were on, and he could see a few cars in movement. As he watched the cars move, he thought of the cat girl. He wondered where she had gone to.

 _"What business could she have with faker...?"_ He thought. She didn't look like a fan girl who was after him for his heroic deeds, or someone who wanted to sell something to him (even though she had a suitcase.). It was more like she needed his help for something, but he had no idea what that could be. _"I guess it's pointless to think about it."_

He heard a noise downstairs. His head moved automatically as he registered the sound. Footsteps. Slowly, he moved his body and went down the stairs. From the noises he could tell someone was in his house. He would get rid of whoever entered it in one hit.

He reached the bottom of the stairs and pressed his body against the wall. The footsteps were getting closer. The shadow of whoever was in his house could be seen in the wall in front of him, getting bigger and bigger since it was getting closer. Just a few more steps... and... Now!

Shadow left the wall and lauched his foot at the person's head at light speed. But luckily, he was able to stop himself on time. His foot a mere inches from the woman's head, she froze in fear as she realized how close from death she was. After some time, her expression turned into a smile. Shadow looked at her with surprise.

"You..."

* * *

The two men laughed at each other through their screens. One of them raised his glass of beer and the other soon did the same. They cheered and drank all of the contents of the glass in one gulp. They laughed some more until one of them spoke up.

"So you think this will work out?"

"Absolutely" The other man said, getting a bit more serious but still smiling. "We put our hands in these emeralds and soon every single universe will be on our hands."

The fat man, who revealed himself to be Dr. Eggman, started playing with his mustache, clearly interested in what was being proposed by his counterpart, Eggman Nega. They'd been discussing the entire day about a plan Nega came up with.

"So, these emeralds," Eggman inquired, bringing his hand to his chin. "They're pretty much the same as the Chaos emeralds from my dimension, correct?"

Nega nodded. "I think it's right to assume that. The only difference I see between those are their shapes." He chuckled. Eggman smiled deviously.

"So getting our hands in both the 'Sol emeralds' and the Chaos emeralds..."

"We'll be invincible." Nega did the same sinister smile. Eggman grinned in amusement. He liked that plan.

"So, you say these emeralds are in my dimension. Where are they?" At this Nega frowned.

"I can't tell. They're under the care of someone called Blaze the Cat. She's the queen of a kingdom in my dimension and is the sole guardian of the emeralds." Nega's expression got darker as he remembered his failure. "She escaped to your dimension before I could lay my hands on them."

Eggman nodded. "I see. So if I find her, I find the emeralds. Is that it?"

"Precisely." The white-haired doctor replied.

"Interesting." Eggman smiled, but soon got serious. "But there are a few problems we might face.

Nega raised an eyebrow "If it's Sonic and his friends, I'm aware that could happen. Any other problems?"

"Indeed." Eggman got serious. "But another problem would be a hedgehog called Shadow." Soon an image of the hedgehog appeared on the screen, and Nega looked at him curiously. The latter totally unknown to him. Eggman continued.

"This hedgehog is something my grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, created. You can say he's the ultimate life form. He possesses immortality, and the purpose of his creation was to help humanity to find a way to overcome incurable diseases."

Nega's expression darkened. He could see how that especiffic hedgehog could be a whole problem on his own, but he kept listening intently to Eggman.

"Two years ago he saved the universe by using the power of the chaos emeralds to defeat an enemy known as Black Doom." Eggman got up from his chair and brought both hands to his back, as he turned to his left to look at a picture of Shadow. "He disappeared in outer space so he was assumed dead."

"You can't possibly mean he is alive?" Nega's tone implied he hoped Doctor was joking, but he knew he wasn't

Eggman looked seriously at the doctor on his screen. "One of my spies, assigned to keep track of Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends's movements confirmed today that he was alive. It appears he had lived in stealth for the past two years working as a cook."

"A cook?" Nega stared at the doctor in disbelief.

Eggman shrugged. "Indeed. I also thought it was strange, but even so we can't let our guards down. I can assure you that if he decides to go against us, we'll be in deep trouble."

"So what do you suggest?" Nega asked. "From what you said we have two possible actions: Either we destroy him -which might be difficult- or bring him to our side."

"That's right." Eggman smiled deviously at Nega. "But I believe bringing him to our side won't be that hard. He had quite a lot of affection for my grandfather, his creator. I'm sure I can make him retrieve the emeralds for us."

At this Nega smiled. "Excellent. But what about Sonic?"

Eggman brought his hand to his chin again, scratching it with a thoughtful expression. "Common robots are nothing to him and his friends. We can't beat them with force only. We need a strategy."

Nega got an idea. "Why not have this Shadow fight against them?"

Eggman shook his head. "Shadow is just as strong as Sonic, maybe a little bit more. They aren't exactly what you'd call friends, but they aren't enemies either. If they fought, the result would probably be a draw, but since Sonic would wtill have the aid of his friends, Shadow would lose by himself."

"I thought he was the ultimate life? He can't even defeat Sonic?" Nega sounded disappointed, as Eggman seemed to have overestimated the dark hedgehog.

But the doctor shook his head again. "It's because Shadow never fights at his full power. His powers are too great, thus making them unstable. He has to restrain it by using devices called inhibitor rings, or he could end up destroying a city by accident." He said, a serious expression returning to his face.

Now Nega seemed surprised, taking back his previous thought on the hedgehog. If that were true, then the hedgehog could be a bigger problem than he initially thought.

"So how do we proceed? If this hedgehog decides to use his unrestrained power on us..."

"I don't know." Eggman frowned. "We really need either him or the emeralds by our side. Otherwise, our plan is bound to fail."

Nega nodded getting serious as well. "I can provide backup robots by using the dimensional portal that is being built as we speak. But it's just as you said, we can't rely on robots."

Eggman got thoughtful for a few more seconds. Until his face lit up in a sinister smile. "I had an idea."

Nega raised an eyebrow, curious. "What would that be?"

Eggman sat down, smirking "If this Blaze girl reaches Sonic, they'll most likely head to your dimension to try to stop you." His smile grew. "So why not prepare a welcoming gift for them?"

Nega's face slowly turned into an evil smile, as he understood his counterpart's plan. "Hmmm... What's on your mind, Eggman, my friend?"

Eggman clapped his hands together. "Get another glass of beer, Nega, my friend, We have a lot to discuss."

Both laughed sinisterly as they started formulating their diabolic plan...

* * *

The hedgehog grumbled in pain as he slowly moved his body. He knew he was laying down on something hard, but from the smell and noises from his surroundings, he couldn't tell for sure where he was. Slowly, he opened his eyes and saw a wooden ceiling, which had holes from all sizes in it. He was laying on the ground with a small blanket on him and bandages around most of his body.. Confused, he tried to get up, but a sudden pain in his chest made him stop immediately and lay down again, moaning and hoping it would get away. Slowly, he tried moving up again, but a small figure approached him, worry evident in his face.

"S-Silver! Please, try not to move, you're injured!" Gardon exclaimed, exasperated, as he gently placed his hands on Silver's shoulders and helped him lay down again.

The silver colored hedgehog groaned, the pain refusing to subside. Bit by bit, he started to remember the events that led him to his actual situation. The casual talk with Blaze at the dinning room, the robots's invasion, the fight between them. He also remembered when he jumped in front of Blaze to protect her, and the last thing he remembered before fainting was sending Blaze through a portal using his powers.

He brought a hand to his head and closed his eyes. His head also hurt like hell, and the fact that he was remembering tragic memories didn't help either. He breathed heavily, trying to understand what was going on. He turned to face the koala. "Where... are we...?"

The koala sighed. "We are in a safe place. Eggman Nega won't find us here."

Silver looked up. Bearing the pain, he noticed there were a few other people in the room. Citizens. There was a woman holding a kid on her lap, a man watching the window every now and then, a person he recognized from the castle and a few others. He didn't actually know any of them. But he came to understand that they were all refugees from the massacre Eggman Nega did. He clenched his fist. That man did something unforgivable.

Just then, a door slammed open, and everyone turned towards it with surprise and fear on their faces. But they seemed slightly relieved when they saw it was just a girl. A raccoon, to be precise. She looked confused and perplexed, as if she had no idea what had happened. She then spotted Silver and Gardon and hurried to their side.

"Marine..." The hedgehog spoke, his voice weak and tired.

"Silver" The girl exclaimed, surprised at the injuries her friend displayed. "W-What happened to you? To the castle? To Blaze?!"

Silver just stared at the poor girl, while Gardon took a step on her direction to speak to her. "Marine... We... The city was attacked by Eggman Nega." He scratched his head, sadness evident in his features. "We sent Blaze and the emeralds to another dimension."

"You did what?!" She seemed surprised, maybe even a little angry. "You sent her alone to somewhere?!"

Gardon looked deep into her eyes, his sad stare turning into an angry one. "There was nothing else we could do! If we hadn't done that, we'd all be killed and the emeralds would be in Nega's hands!" He sighed, sadness returning to him and his rage vanishing as fast as it came. "But at least... She's somewhere safe."

Marine raised an eyebrow "Where did you sent her to?"

"She's at Sonic's dimension." Silver finally spoke up, forcing a grin. "We figured she'd be able to get him and his friends to come over and help clean Nega's mess."

Marine did seem a little relieved, but her body was still tensed. The moment she landed on land from her ship she knew something was wrong. Looking at the city from afar, she saw smoke coming out from many buildings, some were even still on fire.

The same applied for Blaze's castle.

Worried, the raccoon dashed to the city, only to find dozens of robots lurking around and a lot of wounded citizens. She sneaked past the robots countless times until she finally reached the castle, only to find out it was empty. Confused and even more worried, she kept wandering through the city until a citizen told her of a hidden place where Silver was. And there she was.

She gritted her teeth. She was angry at herself for leaving on adventures everytime. As much as she loved it, she now regretted doing it. "If only I hadn't gone on an adventure..." Her eyes started filling with tears. "I-I'd be here to help Blaze!" She cried.

Silver placed a hand on her shoulder, reassuringly. "Don't worry, Marine. She'll be fine. It's Blaze after all."

The raccoon slowly stopped sobbing to look at the hedgehog on the floor. She saw his injuries and felt like crying even more. She couldn't help but think that if she were there, certain things wouldn't have happened. Like Silver getting injured or Blaze going alone. Maybe she could have gone with her. She frowned in anger.

"How can you be sure she'll be fine?!"

"Marine..." The hedgehog stared at her from below.

"Have you forgotten that there's an Eggman in that dimension too?! What if she doesn't find Sonic? What if she dies?!" She yelled, being overwhelmed by her own emotions, tears going down on her face.

After some moments in silence, Silver suddenly started getting up. Pain was evident in his face, but he didn't stop moving and, slowly, his body started to rise. Confused, both Gardon and Marine tried to stop him.

"S-Silver! Don't move, please! You'll worsen your injuries!" The koala said, desperate.

"Y-Yeah! Why are you getting up anyway? Just lay down!"

Silver igonred both of them and, within a few moments, he was standing with difficulty. Slowly, he walked in Marine's direction, and when he stood in front of her, he opened his arms and embraced her in a hug that she clearly didn't expect, as her eyes widened in surprise.

"I'm sorry..." His voice was weak and was trembling. Tears came down from his eyes. "I wasn't strong enough... To protect Blaze..." He sobbed. Marine then knew he was crying and returned the embrace. "I know it might have been careless... I know that..."

"Silver..." She whispered.

"But...!" He broke the hug and placed both his hands on her shoulders, looking at Marine deep in her eyes as he cried. "But that was all I could do...! I'm sorry...!" He cried even more.

Marine hugged him again, fighting against her own tears. "It's ok Silver... I don't blame you for what happened... I know you fought to your best." She sincerely smiled at him.

"All we can do now... Is believe on her..." He wiped his tears. "I promise that I'll get stronger. I promise that I'll protect this realm while she's away! Marine..." He stared deep into her eyes once again. "Will you help me?"

She smiled at the hedgehog, tears still flowing from her eyes. She held his hand. "Of course."

* * *

 **That's all for today. Don't forget about my challenge! Try to solve it!**


	4. Chapter 3

**Hello everyone. I'm glad you're enjoying the story. I am not fond of long author notes, but this time I'll give a few more tips on my challenge, since I believe I was too vague.**

 **1- The character is a cook**

 **2- He's a gentleman**

 **3- He smokes**

 **4- He knows a man named Zeff**

 **That's it. Those are the tips I can give, otherwise I'll end up making this too easy. Now I'd like to reply to a few reviews I got.**

 **Shadazeprincess120:** I'm glad you're enjoying my story. I also hate when my favorite characters die! I felt bad for Silver, so I brought him back haha. I was just looking for a reason for him not to be with Blaze, but now instead of killing him I'll just hook him up with Marine or something. I'm not sure yet, so keep reading! I'll try my best not to disappoint you!

 **intaanz:** Shadaze is my favorite pairing, haha. I think these two were made for each other, but indeed, there aren't many good fanfics out there. And the ones that were good had disappointing endings :( That's why I'm writing my own. Thank you for reading, I'm really happy that you liked it. I intend on making this big, so stay tuned! Keep giving me your opinions, if you think the characters get too OC, let me know! Thanks!

 **Re-Harakhty:** Of course!

 **I don't own Sonic.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Decisions**

A few days after the incident with Shadow, Blaze entered the hotel's elevator and pressed the button corresponding to the ground floor. A few people were already inside, and the button probably had already been pushed, but there was no harm making sure.

As the elevator went down, she stared down at her feet in deep thought. She had to think carefully about what she should do now. The money she had was almost gone, and she couldn't afford another night in the hotel. She managed to cut some expenses and stay in it for five nights, but now she had to go and find another place to stay again.

In those five days, she survived on cheap junk food, bottles of water and juice. As much as she missed the well prepared food from her own cooks she couldn't afford to waste money on expensive stuff, so she managed to get only the necessary for her not to starve. She also bought a few clothes, a backpack to carry her things and she got her clothes properly cleaned and fixed, since she really liked that outfit.

Her days were spent solely on searching for Sonic and his friends, but she had little success. The first day was a total failure, and she chuckled at herself, remembering it.

All the accumulated exaustion was long gone after she slept for nearly twelve hours the day she got to the hotel. Upon waking up, she had never felt so well rested in her entire life. She couldn't express how happy she was that she had found a nice place to stay for some time. Anything was better than sleeping on the street.

Still a bit sleepy, she spent an hour trying to wake herself up, by doing light exercises. She tried using her powers and was glad to find out they were stronger than ever. That rest did miracles.

She made a note to thank Shadow if she ever saw him again. Without his help she clearly wouldn't survive even a few days. She also didn't forget to apologize for her behavior.

However, in all five days she failed to find Sonic or Shadow. She wandered through the city everyday, asked questions, tried new directions... But nothing worked. Both were ghosts.

Sonic, being a hero and a hedgehog that could run at the speed of sound, or maybe even faster, was likely to not stay in place for too long. If Blaze wanted to find him, she had two options: Find out where he lived or any of his friends. But it wasn't as easy as it looked.

The city was big, and it had several other antromorphic animals like them. Asking for a blue hedgehog was the same as asking to find a tree in a forest. There were many optios, and Sonic could be any of them.

Shadow was just as hard to find. Although she was looking for him for a different matter, he was just as hard to find. Having his face on wanted posters probably led him to become stealthy. And a dark hedgehog in a suit was also hard to find. Who could guarantee he used a suit everyday anyway?

She used his wanted poster to look around, but no one ever saw him. People raised an eyebrow at Blaze, since she was looking for a dangerous person, so in the end she knew it would be useless to ask around.

To make things worse, she often got lost as she walked. Being in an unknown place, she often had trouble finding her way back, and ended up walking in circles like an idiot. By the time she reached the hotel she was always exausted and slept like a rock. She regretted not stoping to find a job or something like that, because now she was broke

But now her days on the hotel were over. She heard a sound from the elevator and looked up. The elevator had stopped, but on a different floor. The doors flung open and a few more people entered it. Soon it resumed going down and finnaly Blaze was out, along with a few other people. The others were probably going to the parking lot on the underground, but that was none of Blaze's concern or interest.

She paid her stay on the reception and left with a sigh. Nearly all her money in a single day. She counted her money on the hotel's doors and found out she had roughly twenty-five bucks, counting even the pennies. Frowning, she walked, the gray suitcase swinging in her hand.

She got to know the city a bit in her exploring days. She was a bit more familiar with her surroundings, but if she went too far she'd end up lost for sure.

She started thinking about what to do. Her priority was finding a place to stay, but she clearly had no money for that. So her focus went from Sonic and Shadow to a possible job, so she could at least pay for her stay somewhere. And it had to be on a place that paid in advance, since she was in a harsh situation.

 _"Where should I go...?"_ She pondered, looking at the streets. She looked in a certain direction and she knew that that was the way she came from on the first day. In other words, the say Shadow showed her to the hotel. After thinking for some moments, she decided to go there. "Maybe I can find him today"

Some time later she was on the street where she met the dark hedgehog. She was able to recognize it since even in the morning it was a scary place: It was nearly deserted all the time. She could see the big drops of dry blood on the ground, the proof that she had been saved and that she was in the right place. Clearly the place was rarely frequented since it was still dirty with the bandits's blood. They were nowhere in sight, though.

Blaze scanned her surroundings. _"Let's see... Last time I saw him, he went to that direction..."_ She looked at a certain street that went uphill. Then turned to another on on her left. _"But when he arrived he came from that one... Maybe I can find him if I head there?_ " She thought out loud. She wondered why she was more focused on finding him than a job.

Deciding it was a good idea and wondering why she hadn't thought of that before, she resumed walking. She ended up in a street that was split up. She could either go left or right, both ways leading to completely different places. _"Great."_

She decided to go for her instincts and took the left path, hoping she wouldn't regret her decision. But she could always go back if she had to. She had a long day of walking around anyway.

She pulled a bottle of water from her backpack and drank a few of it. It was already starting to get hot, which raised a displeased look in Blaze's face. She still had plenty water and a few biscuits, so at least she wouldn't starve. Her priority was finding a job and a place to stay. Finding Shadow or Sonic would be a bonus.

Looking around she saw she had entered a commercial area. Good. Her chances of finding a job were a bit bigger. But then she started to consider what she would work on. Clearly a job a protector of the Sol Emeralds or as queen, or even as a fighter were totally unlikely for her to find. And that was all she thought she was good at.

She passed thorugh some stores and considered many jobs. Clerk at a supermarket, Janitor in a large building, Babysitter in some rich family's house. All seemed pretty easy and paid relatively well, but she wouldn't get the job if they found out she was homeless. Blaze shivered at the word. It made her feel sick, but that was the situation she was on. And she didn't want to stay on it for too long.

She convinced herself that it wouldn't hurt to try, but was quick to find out her expectations were right. No one wanted to hire a person with no identity, no home and no documents.

Frowning, she kept walking until she felt a delicious smell. God, it was so good. She found herself getting hungry so she picked a few biscuits to eat. But out of curiosity, she approached the place the aroma was coming from. It was a small restaurant. She peeked at the inside and saw all kinds of food in the customers tables. She wished she were inside instead of eating broken biscuits. But she dismissed the thought as she remembered how broke she was.

She was about to leave when she saw a door open in the back of the building. Curious, she glanced at whoever left it to see what kind of people worked in that place. It was then that her eyes widened in surprise.

* * *

 _A few minutes earlier..._

"We need a pepperoni and sausage pizza to table 23!" Shadow heard someone yell, and immediately went to clean his hands to start working.

He had just decided he was done attending to customers and left for the kitchen. He was way better at cooking than at socializing and acting friendly after all. He cracked his neck as he picked up the order and headed to the sink.

He rolled the sleeves of his suit up and removed his gloves, placing them safely on the pocket of his suit. Letting the cold water hit his hands, he started doing things automatically, as his mind kept drifting to the what had happened a few days ago.

* * *

 _Flashback..._

 _"You..." Shadow muttered to the woman in front of him, who smiled at him._

 _"Hey there, gloomy. Did you miss me?" She teased him. In front of Shadow was his partner, Rouge the Bat. She was probably the only one he could call his friend, since they'd done many jobs together and been on lots of adventures together. But he wasn't in the best of moods at the moment._

 _The bat winked at him seductively, but he frowned, knowing her personality._

 _"How did you find me?" He growled._

 _Rouge crossed her arms and frowned at him. "Hey, is that how you treat a friend you haven't seen in a while? Where are your manners?"_

 _Shadow rolled his eyes and sighed, clearly not in the mood to be scolded "It's good to see you, Rouge, now can you answer my question?" He was getting impatient, but she smirked at him and went back to her usual face._

 _"Sheesh, what's with the rush?" She shrugged "Can't we talk a little?"_

"Fuck, no!" _Shadow thought. But ended up frowning again and accepting He knew he wouldn't get anywhere with Rouge, so he settled down before he blasted her and his apartment. "Ok Rouge. What do you want?"_

 _She frowned at him "Hmph! I was just wondering, how are things?"_

 _Shadow had an emotionless expression, but deep down he was annoyed and angry "I'm fine." He answered. He took her silence and her frown as a hint to continue. "And you?"_

 _"Same with me." She smiled. She then pulled a chair from his table and sat down. He muttered something and did the same. Rouge leaned forward on the table and rested her head on her hand._

 _"So tell me, Shadow, how can you you be alive? You disappeared in outer space after all"_

 _"I don't know. I just woke up in this planet two years ago." He answered, totally uninterested in the conversation and tired of having to answer this again. But managed to hide his disinterest pretty well._

 _"I see. And you'd been here alone for all this time?" She asked, hinting a bit of concern Shadow wasn't expecting._

 _"Yeah." He frowned, glaring at her "Now answer my question. How did you find me?"_

 _Rouge crossed her arms and rested her back on the chair. She had a serious expression. "Well, I found you after your little show on the restaurant."_

 _Shadow raised an eyebrow. She knew of the restaurant?_

 _"You see, Shadow. Recently I've been keeping track of Eggman's movements, and it seems he's been doing the same with Sonic for a while."_

 _Shadow was starting to understand a few things. It'd been a while since Eggman last did something, and spying on Sonic could have something to with it. Maybe he was searching for a weakness or something. Rouge continued, playing with her hair._

 _"He and his friends were being monitored today, and they were in the restaurant you were in." She suddenly smirked at him "I seriously never thought you'd work as a cook!" She giggled._

 _"Are you mocking my job?" He frowned, displeased. Rouge just chuckled and waved it off._

 _"No, no. It's just that I wouldn't have expected that coming from YOU. It's just that the job and you... don't seem to click to me, you know?"_

 _Shadow grunted, but he got what she was saying. Cooking was something no one would have ever expected to see Shadow working with. Even he sometimes couldn't believe himself. But he enjoyed what he did, so who cares?_

 _"Yeah." He got up and went to the kitchen. "You want wine?" He offered_

 _"I'd rather have a glass of water, please."_

 _He nodded and returned with a glass of wine for himself and water for Rouge. He dropped her glass in front of her and sat down, taking a sip of his wine as she thanked him._

 _"So now everyone knows I'm alive?"_

 _"Not exactly." She drank a few of her water "I managed to hide from the government that you are alive. But Eggman and the others know for sure."_

 _He grunted in acknowledgment. "So the government is still after me?"_

 _"Well... Some believe you're alive, some think you're dead. But if they found out you're alive they'd come for you for sure." She let out a sigh "I guess they still see you as a threat."_

 _Shadow grunted in response and drank a bit more wine. "Thanks for letting me know."_

 _Rouge shook her head. "No problem, but that's not what I came to tell you."_

 _"And that is?" Shadow raised his eyebrow. He thought she had already told him what he needed to know."_

 _"Shadow..." She gave him a serious look "I think Eggman is plotting something big this time. I don't have all the details, but I'm pretty sure that he has an ally now, helping him plot something."_

 _That got Shadow curious. Who the hell would team up with that fat ass? And why would he need help, isn't he a genius or something? Shadow got these questions on his head, but before he could ask them, Rouge kept talking._

 _"And now that he knows you're alive, I'm sure he'll go after you." She shrugged "He probably will try to get you to ally with him."_

 _Shadow remained silent for some moments "I got no reason to ally with him. And I'm sure faker and his friends can take care of him" He said quietly. Rouge raised an eyebrow._

 _"That's unexpected. You're not taking part in the action?"_

 _Shadow shrugged "I'll beat anyone who gets in my way. If that doesn't happen I have no reason to waste my time in these pointless battles."_

 _Rouge stared curiously at Shadow. She'd expected him to join a side and beat the crap out of the other as soon as he got the news. But he seemed unintesrested and... she couldn't put it in words. He suddenly got up._

 _"Is that's all, Rouge?" He asked, an unreadable expression in his face._

 _The bat smiled at him and got up. "Yeah, I guess I said everything. I'm outta here."_

 _She headed to the door, and before she could open it up, Shadow opened it for her politely. She raised an eyebrow and smirked. "My, haven't you become quite the gentleman?"_

 _"I hear that quite often" He smirked. She giggled at him and suddenly hugged him._

 _"I'm glad you're alive and well, Shadow." She broke free of the hug, looking at him in the eyes. "Just be careful with Eggman, ok?"_

 _Shadow smirked "He's the one who should be careful with me." At this Rouge laughed and punched him in the shoulder in a friendly way._

 _"I guess I'll go now. See you later, gloomy!" She turned around to leave, but Shadow called her._

 _"Wait!"_

 _She turned back, confused. He scratched his head. "Look... Can you get me the cellphone of faker or any of his friends?"_

 _She raised an eyebrow "Why do you need that?"_

 _"There's someone looking for him." He said simply. She shrugged, not really interested and checked her phone number._

 _"Let's see... I have the number of the pink hedgehog who's always pestering him. Amy Rose." She turned to him "That will do?"_

 _He nodded "Yeah."_

 _She pulled a small notepad from between her breasts and a pen. Shadow wondered how the hell she could keep things there. He politely tried not to stare as she wrote the number in a small piece of paper. She ripped it off and handed it to him_

 _"There you go."_

 _"Thanks." He placed the paper on his pocket. "I'll see you later, partner."_

 _She smiled "Partner huh?" She then winked and turned around. "See ya!"_

 _Rouge then flew off the building through the window on the corridor. Shadow glanced at her before closing the door._

* * *

 _Present time..._

Shadow was already putting the pizza in the oven when he stopped reminiscing the events from before. He couldn't help but wonder what was Eggman planning this time, and if he would indeed get involved.

As he waited for the pizza to heat up, he cleaned his hands once more and then brought his hands to his pocket, where a small piece of paper was carefully folded so it wouldn't crumple. He then remembered of the lavender cat. "I bothered to get this number for her... I don't even know if I'll ever see her again" He thought.

Then he remembered Rouge saying something about Eggman having an ally. That didn't make sense to him. As far as he knew, Eggman was a genius who didn't really need anyone to help him. If he had allied with someone, that meant the person was also intelligent. If not that, the person was crazy strong. Either way, he dreaded what was to come and hoped he wouldn't have to take part in it.

Just then, Zeff appeared from nowhere and placed a hand in Shadow's shoulder. "Lunch time, Shadow. Go take a break after you throw the garbage outside." He smirked at the hedgehog, who frowned in response at the extra task.

Sighing, the hedgehog left the restaurant through the back doors and placed the trash in the cans outside. He then pulled a cigarrete and proceeded to light it up and start smoking. As he turned back to enter the restaurant again, his eyes met golden ones. He stared in awe for a second at the person staring at him. A cat holding a suitcase.

Both Shadow and Blaze were silent, simply trying to register each ones's sudden appearence. Both had a lot in their minds and a lot to say to each other, but the surprise of meeting each other like this rendered them speechless for some moments.

After what seemed like an eternity Blaze finally spoke up. "Hi..."

"Hey." He replied, unsure about what to say. He noticed she was standing there, awkwardly, and assumed she also wanted to talk to him. Otherwise she'd have left already.

He knew they'd end up getting silent again, so he tried to keep the conversation going. "So... how have you been?" He asked.

Blaze looked up at him, forcing a smile. "I've been great, thanks. You?"

"Same, I guess." He replied, relieved that she was ok. He felt guilty from letting her alone that day.

They were about to get silent again when Blaze suddenly spoke up. "Listen..." She looked down, her ears slumping. "I'm sorry for the other day... I know you just wanted to help me, and I acted like a jerk, so... I'm sorry."

Shadow seemed surprised for a moment, but then he nodded. "It's ok. I also wanted to apologize. I guess I was too pushy after all. And... sorry for raging too." His ears slumped as well. Blaze looked at him for a second and smiled.

"It's fine. I guess we're both at fault then, huh?"

"Yes..." He gave her a small smirk

Blaze was glad she was able to apologize. For a moment she thought he was still angry at her, but she was relieved she was forgiven. But she still had more to tell him.

"Also... Thanks... For the money, I mean. It helped me a lot..." She nodded politely. Shadow nodded once again, glad he was able to help in the end, even if it was indirectly.

"Don't worry about it. Do you still have any?" He asked, somehow knowing the answer

She sighed in defeat. "Not really. I paid my stay in the hotel today and left with almost nothing."

Shadow was surprised. The money he gave her would roughly allow her to stay in the hotel for three days. But she managed five.

"I see you could administer the money quite well. Did you cut off a lot of expenses?"

She looked at him with a frown. "Yeah... It was either that or sleeping in the streets."

A sudden thought came across Shadow's head. "Have you eaten properly?"

Before she could answer, her stomach made an awkward loud sound, and Shadow knew for sure that she hadn't eaten much in the last few days.

"I guess not." He stated and she blushed in embarrasment.

"W-Well, that doesn't matter. I still have a few biscuits with me."

"You've been surviving on biscuits?" Shadow looked at her incredulously. She looked down in embarrasment and started burying the tip of her foot in the ground. Shadow sighed.

"Follow me." He then started walking towards the restaurant. Blaze's eyes widened in confusion.

"W-What? Where are you going?" She asked, even though it was pretty obvious.

"Just come." He said without turning back. He threw his cigarette away and entered the restaurant, leaving her behind.

She pondered for some moments if she should follow him inside. He was too unpredictable and that was driving her nuts. Then she realized she was standing next to garbage cans like an idiot. She felt leaving, but she felt like she didn't want to ignore Shadow's request. Sighing, she entered through the doors he disappeared into and found herself in a kitchen full of people working at their best.

She found Shadow next to some pots and pans, with a plate full of food in his hand. He was holding a ladle and carefully pouring some red sauce into some spagghetti. He turned to Blaze and offered the plate. "Eat up."

Blaze shook her head "I-I can't pay for this."

"Don't worry." He said simply. "I won't charge you for this. I don't like seeing people hungry." He grinned, reminding himself of the words his boss told him when he first entered the place. "Now eat up or I will."

She was going to protest, but a simple glance at the plate got Blaze's mouth to go watery. The food smelled and looked delicious, and not accepting it after eating biscuits and candy for four days seemed stupid.

She picked the plate, a knife and a fork then waited for Shadow as he got food in another plate. When he was done, he motioned for her to follow him and they left the kitchen, reaching the area of the restaurant where all the clients were. Shadow sat in a table for two and, using his eyes, motioned for her to sit with him. Nervous, she sat down, placing her suitcase and her backpack next to her feet. She looked at her food, while Shadow started on his.

"It'll get cold." He said after swallowing. She got her silverware and started on her food. It was delicious, and her expression made that clear. Shadow noticed it and smirked.

"Liked it?"

"It's amazing" She said with a smile, getting another fork full of food and eating it calmly, even though she was very hungry. After swallowing, she stated. "The cook who did this sure is good."

"Thanks" Shadow said, which earned a curious glance from her. "I'm the cook." He explained.

Blaze's eyes widened a little. That was surprising. She didn't expect him to be a cook. He obviously had business in the restaurant, that much was clear for her since she saw him leaving it. But never she would have thought of him as a cook. A few days ago he worked on the mafia in her head. She smirked at the thought

"Well, it's one of the best meals I've ever had" She said sincerely "Nice job."

"Thanks" A tiny smile appeared on his face.

They ate in silence for some time, and Blaze took the time to explore the restaurant with her eyes. It had a simple decoration, but she was impressed at how crowded the place was.

"There sure is a lot of movement here." She commented.

Shadow nodded "It often gets like this at this time of the day."

Blaze was amazed. She never really visited a restaurant before since she ate at her own castle, and she had her own personal cooks. It was somehow a new experience to her, and she couldn't help but enjoy the food and the environment.

She started to think and soon something seemed strange to her. "Is it ok for you to be here?" She asked "I mean, shouldn't you be working?"

Shadow stared to her. "It's fine. I'm on my break right now."

Blaze nodded and looked around. She found a bit strange since it seemed he was the only one taking a break from the restaurant's staff. He was also the only one wearing a suit from what she'd seen. Shadow seemed to pick up on her confusion and enlighted her.

"I'm actually the sous chef in here. I work more than anyone else since I do all kinds of work, from cooking to being a waiter. That's why I get an earlier break." He said. She seemed satisfied with his answer, since it made a lot of sense. She also couldn't help but be surprised at his high rank.

He then motioned for one waiter to come, and hurriedly one of them came.

"Yes, Mr. Shadow?" The young waiter asked politely

"Bring me Sake, please." He then turned to Blaze "You want anything to drink?"

Blaze was startled for a moment "Some orange juice'd be nice."

The waiter bowed and left, returning moments later with the drinks. He asked if he could be of help in anything else, to which Shadow denied. The waiter then bowed again and left.

They ate in silence and eventually both finished their foods at the same time. Shadow then looked at Blaze as he filled a tiny glass cup with sake.

"So." He started, swallowing the sake in one gulp. "What will you do now?"

Blaze seemed thoughtful "Well, I'm not sure. I need to find Sonic as soon as possible, but first I'll need a job and a place to stay. But it's hard."

Shadow raised an eyebrow. She mentioned Sonic again. He wanted to ask why she needed to find him, but now wasn't the moment.

"What kind of work are you looking for?" He asked, a bit curious.

She sighed. "To be honest I don't have any kind of experience in any particular area. So I tried applying for simple jobs like baby-sitter and janitor, but they didn't accept me since... well, I have nothing."

Shadow stared at her for some time. He didn't know if he should, but he found himself wanting to help her again.

"You could work here." He said. She looked at him surprised. "The waitress's salary is pretty good."

"Are you serious?" She asked. She was somehow happy to hear that, but she wondered if she had what it took to be a waitress. She wasn't the most cheerful person in the world, she was shy and had a short temper. Before she could mention it, though, Shadow spoke up.

"Yes. The head-chef said something about needing staff, so you should ask him."

Blaze smiled at him "Thanks a lot Shadow." Her smile turned into a warm one "It means a lot to me."

Shadow found himself fighting against a blush for god knows what reason and turned away, frowning." It's nothing."

"But..." Blaze started, feeling somehow embarrased to ask waht she wanted to. "Do you think... I could be paid in advance...? Because, well... I need somewhere to stay."

Shadow looked at her emotionlessly "I'm not sure if that's possible."

She nodded, disappointed. But to her surprise, he continued speaking.

"But you're free to take my previous offer."

Blaze got confused, but then she got what he meant. "Y-You mean staying at your place?"

"Yes." He seemed serious

"I-I..." Before she could say something, Shadow spoke up again.

"Look, before you say you can't, thank me and give me some random excuse, just try to consider it. I can't really give you any more money, and I'm not sure if you'll find a place to stay so easily being flat broke. If you refuse I won't ask you again, so think wisely. It's your last chance."

Just then, a fat man approached the table. "Hey Shadow. Who is this?" He had a curious smile.

Shadow glanced at the fat man. "Her name is Blaze." He turned to the lavender cat. "Blaze, this is the head chef, Zeff."

"Nice to meet you, young lady." The man politely extended his hand towards her, who gladly shook it "It's my pleasure."

Shadow got up and turned his back to both of them. "There is something she needs to ask you, old fart. I'll leave you two to talk." He then glanced at her through the corner of his eye. "Think about my offer." He left the two behind and disappeared.

The man raised an eyebrow, but then took a seat where Shadow was seated a few moments ago and smiled at the cat in front of him. "So, what is it, young lady?"

Blaze frowned, a bit angry at Shadow for suddenly throwing her into a conversation with a stranger. But she managed to hide her dissatisfaction, still a bit confused that he nicknamed his boss in front of him. She smiled politely at the man.

"You can call me Blaze, Mr. Zeff." He chuckled

"Just Zeff will do then. So, what do you need from me?"

Blaze had a nervous expression. "So, um, Shadow told me you're in need for staff. Is there any chance that I could, uh, work here as a waitress?"

The man chuckled again "Oh, haha. Why, yes, of course you can. Can you start working on Monday?"

Blaze quickly checked the calendar on her table and saw that it was Friday. Which meant she'd work next week.

"Um... I guess I can, but can you answer me something?"

"Yes?" He seemed curious again.

Blaze was terribly nervous and embarrased to ask this, but she had to. "Er... Sorry, but, is there any chance that I could be paid in advance...? I'm going through some financial problems and... It would really help me. I don't have anywhere to go."

Zeff looked at her in silence, reminding himself when Shadow came two years ago with the same requests. But he was a lot more harsher, which made the man laugh form the obvious difference between the cat and the hedgehog. She was polite while Shadow was... well, not as polite as her.

The man scratched his mustache in deep thought. "I'll see what I can do. But I expect an amazingly good job from you in return, understand?"

Blaze smiled with excitement and relief. "Yes!"

The man nodded and smiled. "I can't pay you at this right moment, so you should look for a place to stay until Monday." He said. "Are you a friend of Shadow's?"

Blaze was slightly disappointed now, but remained composed. "Well... kinda."

The man smirked "I was surprised when I saw him here, talking to you. The boy doesn't have many friends, and rarely talks to people other than me." He sighed. "I've been trying to get him to be a bit more sociable, but I guess people don't chance that easily." For a moment the man looked distant, and Blaze did nothing but think about how she might have misjudged the hedgehog.

"He's quiet and anti-social... I guess I can relate to that." She thought, narrowing her brows a bit.

The man then suddenly turned back to her. "Did he offer you his house?"

Blaze widened her eyes a bit in surprise. "How do you know?"

"Hahaha. I know how he is. He might be anti-social and angry all the time, but he has a good heart. Don't think weirdly of his request, it's just his way to show you that he wants to help."

Blaze nodded in silence. Just then, Shadow returned with his emotionless gaze and Zeff got up.

"Well, young lady, I think we're done here. You still have anything you wish to discuss you can look for me in my office. If you'll excuse me I'll return to work." He politely bowed and left the table, leaving Shadow and Blaze behind.

"So?" Shadow asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He said I can work here" She smiled at him, to which he nodded.

"Good." He turned his back to her and started walking off.

Blaze called him "Wait, where are you going?"

"I got work to do. My break just ended," He said, putting on his gloves and turning to face her. "When will you start?"

"He told me to start on Monday." She replied

Shadow placed his hands in his pockets. "I see. Have you thought about my offer?"

Blaze looked down. She wanted to accept, but simply thought that wasn't right. She knew he didn't mean anything weird, but she just felt like she would be a bother to him, and she hated depending on others. He shrugged at her silence.

"I'll give you more time to think. Just give me an answer before my shift is over" He turned back again and left for the kitchen.

Blaze sighed and looked up. She wasn't sure yet if she should accept. She knew he wanted to be nice for some reason, but she felt it would be strange to sleep in the house of someone she got to know a few days before. Not just that, but a man. She blushed at the thought.

Despite that and the obvious fact that she'd be going to the house of a wanted man, deep down she wanted to accept. He seemed like a good person from what the head chef told her, and she could relate to his loneliness and quietness.

She had two options now, both pretty obvious: She could either accept or deny Shadow's offer, and she guessed she had plenty of time to think about, since she had until the end of his shift to answer. She frowned at the fact that she didn't know when that was, but she tried to ignore that.

In her mind, to refuse Shadow's offer she would either have to be extremely rude to him so he wouldn't ask again or run away screaming from the restaurant. Neither suited her personality and manners as a queen, so if she decided to refuse, she would obviously try to be calm and sincere. She didn't want him to hate her after all.

Sitting by herself for minutes, Blaze kept thinking about what to choose. She was offered a place to stay, food, and a job. As much as it seemed appealing in her situation, her stubborness in thinking she'd be depending on others was getting the best of her.

But in the end, she decided to accept Shadow's offer. It seemed like a wise choice, and it wasn't like she'd stay there forever. She just had to stay for enough time for her to find Sonic, get him to go to her dimension, help her beat Nega to a bloody pulp and go back to her kingdom and her people for good.

She even considered asking for his help in that matter, but she wondered how she would tell him that she was from another dimension and that she needed him to beat some villain for her. It probably would be too strange.

Having decided herself, she picked her backpack and suitcase, got up and walked into the kitchen's direction to tell Shadow her decision. But she stopped when she realized she probably shouldn't enter the kitchen, even though she got in the restaurant from it. It probably would be strange for her to simply enter the kitchen by herself.

 _"Should I wait for him...?"_ She thought, but the idea was absurd. From what she remebered, the day they met Shadow was probably returning home from work, and that was late at night. She had to tell him soon, or try to distract herself somehow until the time came. She chose to enter the kitchen, even if everyone inside threw her weird glances.

It as just as she thought. The second she entered, a few cooks looked at her, and soon their glances turned into curious ones. She scanned the area for Shadow, but before she could find him a tall cook approached her.

"What are you doing here?" He hissed "This area is for authorized personell only. Leave, now."

Blaze stood there defiantly, a bit angry at the cook's rudeness "I got business with the sous chef, Shadow."

"I told you to leave!" He growled, getting angry. Just then he was shoved away by the hedgehog in question. The man looked at Shadow surprised after nearly falling to the ground if not for the quick reflex of holding the counter. The black hedgehog glared at him. "Go back to work."

Still taken aback from the shove, the man nodded and left hurriedly, while Shadow turned his attention to the cat in front of him. He stood in silence as she looked for the words she needed.

"I thought about your offer... and..." She started, looking down.

 _"There she goes."_ Shadow narrowed his brows. _"She'll deny it again. Stupid stubborn gi-"_ Shadow trail of thoughts was broken when Blaze suddenly looked at him, as if she had read his mind.

"...I accept."

"Huh?" Shadow seemed a bit shocked. He thought she would flat out reject his offer again. "...Are you sure?"

"Sure... I hate to admit it, but... I need your help." Her ears slumped down. "I... won't be a bother, will I?"

Shadow smirked. "Well, that depends on you." She rolled her eyes and frowned at him.

He kept smirking "We'll leave at night. Keep yourself busy until then." He said and went back to check at something in the pans.

Blaze felt useless standing there doing nothing while everyone around her was hard at work. She wanted to leave the kitchen and wait for Shadow outside, but she couldn't bring herself to stand still for hours to wait for someone. Also, she felt like helping them, even if she had no experience in the kitchen. After scanning around the kitchen, she spotted a pile of dirty dishes, pans, silverware and glasses. Blaze saw there was a girl struggling to clean them all by herself. She approached he young girl.

"Would you like some help?" Blaze smiled at her. The girl looked at her and nodded, flashing a smile. "Please"

Blaze put on something like a cleaning uniform and got to work, scrubbing all kinds of things with a sponge for hours. She befriended the girl, who was named Sayo, and they both talked the entire time. They talked a bit about themselves (Blaze obviously avoiding subjects like emeralds and kingdoms), about the restaurant, and even about Shadow. When they realized the dirty stuff that needed to be cleaned stopped coming, they realized they had finished their job.

Sayo removed her uniform and sighed in relief. "Thanks for the help, Blaze" She shook the cat's hand "I'm looking forward to working with you!"

"Same! I see you later, Sayo!" Blaze smiled as the girl hurriedly left. She then felt someone approaching her. It was Shadow.

"Ready to go?" He asked. "Or did you change your mind, kit-kat?"

She frowned "I'm ready. Lead the way, emohog."

Shadow grunted in response and started walking away, with Blaze following right behind. As usual, as soon as he left he got himself a cigarette, but it didn't annoy Blaze. He looked cool smoking, she had to admit.

Suddenly Shadow broke the silence. "Did you enjoy the work?" He asked not turning back, smoke coming out from his mouth.

"Well it was a bit troublesome, but it was enjoyable. I had a nice company."

"Good." He said simply and kept walking. Blaze sighed in frustration. She knew she wasn't the best at conversations, but with Shadow every talk ended all of a sudden, and if it depended on him, he would always leave it like that, as if he couldn't stand not being in silence for too long.

Blaze decided to keep the conversation going. "So, do you work on weekends?" She asked, curious. She knew she'd start on monday, but she'd be a simple waitress, while he was the sous chef. He probably had to work more.

"Only if I want to or if Zeff calls me. He usually takes care of everything in the weekends. Normally he stays in his office all the day, but at days like these he leads the kitchen. He can't stay away from cooking."

"Oh, I see." She smiled "He seems like a great person."

"He is." Shadow commented, and silence reigned once again. Before Blaze could try starting it again, Shadow suddenly turned and entered a building. Blaze followed in silence as the security guard greeted them.

"Good evening Mr. Lobo" He bowed to Shadow, who just nodded. The man then turned to Blaze in confusion, but bowed again "Good evening miss."

"Same" She replied, a bit confused. _"Lobo? Was that Shadow's last name?"_

She followed him to the elevator, where he gently opened the door for her before entering. Blaze was surprised at the chivalry, so she just smiled. He pressed a button and the elevator started going up.

"Why Lobo?" Confusion written in her face.

Shadow kept his blank face. "Fake name. I'm still a wanted person, so I don't want the government to know every single thing I do."

"That makes sense." She replied. Soon the elevator opened and they left.

Shadow opened his door and once again held it for Blaze, who thanked him this time. The lights went on automatically and Blaze noticed it was a pretty simple apartment. It seemed expensive but it was... empty. He had no pictures around, it had nearly no decoration, and the deadly silence was a bit disturbing. She wondered what it was like to enter this place everyday.

"Follow me." Shadow said, and she did. As she walked behind him she spotted the kitchen, which seemed pretty well equipped. He probably had more stuff in his kitchen than at the rest of his apartment. "Figures. He's a cook isn't he?"

They entered a room, which had a bed, a plasma tv (not s big as the one in the living room), an air conditioner and even a mini bar. Blaze seemed surprised. It was like a hotel room. There was a door to her left and she could see it was a bathroom. But the smell coming from this place and the stuff around... She knew that was HIS room.

"You can sleep here." He said, sounding bored. Blaze looked at him

"What about you? I mean, isn't this your room?"

"I'll be in the couch if you need me." He said, already leaving the room.

Blaze took a grip on his arm "Hold on! I don't think that's fair. I'm the... guest here, so I should be on the couch."

"Don't worry about it" He pulled his arm back "It's more confortable there, and you seem tired."

"But-"

"Just go." He said and left.

The cat sighed and returned to his room, closing the door. She undressed and quickly got into her pajamas. She laid down on the bed, and she could smell his cologne on the pillow. _"God."_ She groaned.

But it was certainly more confortable than the hotel. She sighed and listened to the air-conditioner's sound until she eventually drifted to sleep.

* * *

 **Every single story had at least one chapter that ends with the characters sleeping. As much I hate it, I had no other choice. Sorry guys! Anyway, I'll get the answer to my challenge next chapter, so if you figure it out, don't forget to mention it in the reviews. Stay tuned, there'll be a LOT more to read!**


	5. Chapter 4

**Hey guys. Sorry for the delay, it's been difficult to write for the past few days since I've been pretty busy. But here it is! I'd like to congratulate Re-Harakhty for being the first one to solve my challenge. Next chapter there will be another one, so stay tuned! Don't forget to review!**

 **Seriously, don't. Pls.**

* * *

 **C** **hapter 3: The Call**

"Shadow, what are you doing?!" Blaze asked, desperation in her face as she struggled to get up. She had underestimated him. _"If this keeps up... I'll end up..."_ She thought, dreading what was to come.

"What does it look like?" The hedgehog asked. He gazed at her emotionlessly. "I'm getting rid of you."

She narrowed her brows at the dark hedgehog. "Why are you doing this?! Stop hitting me!" She was getting angry and nervous. She thought she could take him on, but it was clear that she couldn't. He was on a whole other level, and she was powerless before him.

"You want me to stop?" He raised an eyebrow. "Ha. As if I'd do that."

"At least let me stand! Or can't you even fight fair?" She growled. He smirked at her.

"You're such a bad loser." His smirk grew. "Just accept it and die already."

"No!" She cried, desperate.

 **FINISH HER!**

A loud, deep voice yelled on the television. A shirtless man with sunglasses was standing in a fighting stance while a woman with four arms was dizzy and barely standing next to him. Soon the background got black and the man did a pose. "Watch this" he said.

The man in the TV then gave an uppercut to the woman's chin and her head flew from her body. The man then grabbed the headless woman's body by the waist and ripped off her entire torso from her legs, her vertebra visible. He then threw the torso on the ground and flashed a smile at the tv as the words started appearing.

Johnny Cage wins.

 **FATALITY!**

A red menu appeared in the TV asking if the players wanted a rematch, to change characters or to return to the main menu. Shadow looked at Blaze with a smug smirk but got a glare in return, which made him chuckle without changing much of his emotionless face.

"What's wrong?" He feigned ignorance

Blaze narrowed her brows "You cheater! You are addicted to this game!"

"Haha, keep telling excuses. You just lost because you fought against the best, that's all." He shrugged.

"It was my second time playing this game! You didn't even teach me the controls! Cheater!" She exclaimed. Her attitude was gold to him. He was having a nice time teasing the cat.

Blaze's first time playing had been with Marine a long time ago. She was actually pretty good at it, and she managed to beat Marine every now and then, but since both were terrible they allowed themselves to look at the move list and test their abilities, each at one side of the screen training. But Shadow didn't let her pause to remember the controls, so he easily defeated her many times in a row, with her not coming any near to beating him.

"Where's the fun in being taught everything? You need to learn them by yourself." He teased more, which earned him yet another frown.

"Yeah, you ever let me stand still!" She growled, as she remembered getting herself stuck in his endless combos. "Besides, where did all that gentleman attitute go, huh?"

He raised an eyebrow "What?"

"Where did the" She started talking trying to imitate his voice as much she could "I'd never raise my hand to a woman go, huh?" She asked in her normal voice at the two last words. Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Really? It's not even me who's beating that girl up, it's Johnny Fucking Cage who is. Besides, she's just a bunch of pixels, she's not even real!" He exclaimed, not realizing he was falling victim to the tease game. It seemed that ticking his pride angered him, and as soon as Blaze noticed it she smirked.

"That's no excuse. She's a lady and you made someone beat her up. Boo." She said defiantly and Shadow grunted.

"She's a lady?! Look at Sheva, Blaze! It like as if Hulk screwed a giant spider! And you say she's a lady?"

Blaze narrowed her brow, pretending to be angry "Are you saying she's not a lady just because she's ugly?"

"No! I just... Ah, Fuck this!" He got up angry, which made Blaze laugh. She was glad she was able to turn the tables in their unnoficial game, but she made a mental note to be careful when talking to Shadow. She couldn't afford to fall victim to his mind games, and she had to make sure he kept dancing in her hand. She watched as he got the Mortal Kombat 9 cd from his console and carefully placed it in it's case. He then placed the game next to the few others he had and turned to Blaze.

"I'm gonna make lunch, are you hungry?" He asked, somewhat calmer, as if he had forgotten she had messed up with him before. Blaze nodded.

"A little. Do you need any help?" She offered, but he shook his head. "No, that's fine. It's better to keep you away from the kitchen."

Blaze frowned, embarrased, but he was right. The earlier events confirmed his statement, as Blaze remembered her pitiful attempts in making a pancake at breakfast time. As simple as it is, Blaze somehow managed to make the pancake catch fire, much to Shadow's annoyance and amusement. As if that wasn't enough, she felt like heating her glass of milk, but since Shadow was already using the microwake, she decided to use her pyrokinetic powers. The result? The milk got too hot and at the first sip she threw the cup upwards, landing in Shadow's head and making him growl in pain as the hot milk burned him.

He somehow healed quite fast, much to Blaze's surprise. She was sure he'd get at least second degree burns and some ugly scars. She was about to call an ambulance, but whe he left the bathroom, looking as if nothing happened Blaze's eyes widened in surprise. She questioned him about it, totally intrigued, but he refused to answer, and he also made very clear to Blaze that he'd handle the things in the kitchen from now on. She knew she was a disaster, and she couldn't even argue back. It was her first day and she was already able to burn both the food and the owner of the house, practically at the same time.

Sighing, she just looked at him while hiding her embarrasment. "Ok, so what should I do while you are cooking?" She asked, resting a hand on her waist.

Since she was staying on his house, she thought the least she could do was help around in the house. It was a weekend after all, and both ahd plenty of time. However, Blaze being a princess clearly did not give her much experience in cleaning, cooking or doing laundry. She could fight for hours, but she found out that these chores were WAY more exausting and annoying than she'd thought. For a moment she felt bad for her maids, but she really appreciated their hard works.

She saw Shadow smirk, was she was sure he'd tell her to do something stupid or that she wouldn't like to do. "Well, how about y- Oh, wait." His face suddenly changed, and his expression indicated that he had remembred something. Blaze raised a brow in curiosity as she watched him head towards his suit coat, which was carefully hanging on the living room's chair. It was then that she noticed he wasn't wearing his suit, and was instead using a casual black shirt written 'GENTLECOOK' on his chest and gray jeans. He also had weird shoes with holes at the bottom. She'd question him about it, but he soon approached her and handed her a small piece of paper, wihtout saying anything. Confused, she picked it up.

"What's this?" She questioned, looking at the folded paper with intrigue. She carefully unfolded it to reveal the word "Rose" written in a feminine handwriting and a phone number below it.

"An acquaintance of mine got this number. It's a friend from Sonic, so you should call her."

Realization suddenly hit on Blaze, as she felt excitement and happiness coming to her. "This is Amy's number?!" She asked, even though she knew the answer.

Shadow noticed her excitement and got curious. He hadn't expected she'd get so worked up like she clearly was. And then something came to his mind. "You know her?" He thought it was strange. He didn't think she knew anyone besides Sonic. He couldn't even tell if she knew Sonic in person at all. None of them ever mentioned her.

"Of course I do! She's my friend... I guess." She said, suddenly feeling a bit confused and uncertain of her feelings. But her excitement soon returned as she figured out that she'd be able to call Sonic and that he'd be able to help her restore order in her dimension. As much thrilled as she was, she managed to remain composed and politely bow to Shadow in gratittude "Thanks a lot, Shadow" She smiled cheerfully at him.

It was then that something strange happened. Her smile somehow got him nervous, and he found himself coughing and having trouble with words. "It was nothing..."

"I'll go call her right away. Thanks again!" She smiled again and turned to the telephone, while Shadow entered the kitchen and cleaned his hands.

 _"What was that...?"_ He thought, not sure about what made so nervous. Her smile took him off guard, and for a second he lost his pose. Gladly she didn't notice. _"It was probably nothing... I was just taken off guard, that's all."_

As he carefully chopped some meat in cubes, he could hear her walking around, with the telephone pressed against her ear. He sighed, clearly confused at her excitement and her rush. It seemed to Shadow as if she HAD to talk to Sonic instead of simply wanting to do so. Since they first met Blaze needed to find the blue hedgehog, and somehow that seemed like her primary goal. For a person that seemingly was too far from home and hadn't eaten anything but biscuits in the last five or more days, she had to get her priorities straight in Shadow's opinion. But he didn't know of the situation, so he wouldn't judge.

He still didn't know what went through his head when he asked for her to stay over. She wasn't annoying, which was a big positive for Shadow. More than that, she was actually quite enjoyable since she was quiet like him. But on the same day he met her he actually went and asked for her to stay at his place for a while. Even though he didn't mean anything weird, for Shadow of all people to offer a roof and food for someone in need was something no one would expect, not even himself. He couldn't figure out why he did so, but he hoped he wouldn't regret bringing a stranger to his house.

He tried to convince himself that he did it because it was the right thing to do, but even so it was still pretty strange. People just don't go out of their ways to invite people they didn't know to stay at homes. Frowning, Shadow couldn't help but think of himself as a weird idiot. There was some other reason for Shadow inviting her over, but he couldn't figure it out.

Shaking his head, he tried to focus on the food in front of him, but every now and then the cursed cat appeared on his mind again. And that smile... Shadow gritted his teeth, wondering what the hell was wrong with him.

Meanwhile, Blaze frantically walked around was she dialed a certain number yet again. _"Come on Amy...! Pick that up!"_ She thought, a little anxious. Suddenly, a drowzy voice came from the other side.

 _"Uhm... Hello?"_ Blaze immediately recognized the voice, but decided to confirm it.

"Amy?"

The voice on the other side seemed a bit confused. _"Yes? Who is it?"_

"Amy... It's me, Blaze."

 _"BLAZE?!"_ Amy yelled from her side. Blaze slightly took the phone away from her ear to recover from the sudden outburst, but soon returned to speak with the pink hedgehog."

"Yes, that's me. How've you been?" Blaze smiled at the phone, imagining the surprise in Amy's face right now.

Without a doubt, Amy was surprised _"My gosh, what a surprise, Blaze! I didn't know you had my number!"_ The hedgehog giggled. " _I've been doing great, how about you?"_

Blaze sighed. She really wished she could say that things were great, but she'd be lying. Things were far from being good.

"Actually... I'm not so good Amy. A lot has happened... That's why I'm calling, actually."

Amy's voice changed her tone from surprise and excitement to worry and anxiousness. _"...What happened?"_

After a brief silence, Blaze finally spoke up, with a rather weak voice."I... I really can't explain through the phone. Do you think we can meet up with Sonic and everyone else? I really need help, it's urgent."

 _"Of course Blaze. Are you in our dimension?"_ Amy's voice was full of concern.

"Yes. I arrived here a few days ago, and I'm uh... Staying at an aquaintance's house for now.

 _"Oh, I see. I'll try to call everyone and I'll return the call, ok? Can I call this number you're using?"_

Blaze wondered if Shadow would be ok with that, but he figured there was no problem. After all, he allowed her to call someone using his phone, so recieving a call shouldn't be a problem. "Yes, please."

" _Ok then, Blaze. I'll call you very soon, ok? Don't worry, I'm sure we can help you."_

Blaze sighed and smiled a little. "Sure. Thanks a lot, Amy. I'll explain everything later, ok?"

 _"Please do, I'm a little worried now. But once again, don't worry. Whatever it is, I'm sure Sonic will do whatever he can to help."_ Blaze heard an infatuated sigh from the pink hedgehog and cleared her throat, trying to make her stop thinking about the blue hero. It worked. _"Oh, I'm sorry. Anyway, I'll call you soon. Bye Blaze!"_

"Ok, bye Amy."

Blaze then hung up the phone. She felt a little better already. Things were starting to take a turn for better, and Blaze was glad. She couldn't wait for the time when she'd go back to her dimension and teach Nega the best of lessons. Hope filled her heart as he anxiously waited for Amy's call. But she figured it would take some time, so she had to distract herself somehow until then.

She decided to see how Shadow was doing and cautiously opened the kitchen's door. She saw Shadow's back turned to her, and he was slowly moving a wooden spoon in circles in a certain pan. The smell was delicious, and she found herself humming. Shadow heard her and slightlly turned to face her. His face had no emotion like always.

"How did it go?" He asked, not really sounding interested. But Blaze didn't even notice as she was feeling rather overjoyed.

"I'm waiting for a return now, but it seems everything will work out." She breathed in relief and brought her hands to her chest, while she smiled to the ground. "I'm glad..."

Shadow stared at her for some seconds. "Blaze."

She turned at him. "Yes?"

"Can you tell me what happened?" He asked, with a serious expression. "Why are you looking for Sonic?"

She clearly didn't expect those questions, and he just shrugged. "It's ok if you don't want to."

Blaze shook her head. Somehow she felt like telling him. She decided he was trustworthy after all he did for her. "No... It's ok. I'll tell you, but... can it be later?" She looked away, with a defeated expression. "I don't really like remembering it... And I'll probably meet with Sonic and the others to explain it to them. Why don't you come along?" She then scratched the back of her head with embarrasment. "I probably wouldn't know where to go if they told me anyway, haha."

At this Shadow smirked. He didn't liike the idea of meeting faker, but if that would put away his curiosity, and if somehow he could help the cat, then he supposed it was ok to bear with Sonic for some time. He nodded at her, a bit unsure. "Sure, I can wait."

She smiled at him, then looked around as he turned his back to her and focused on the pans in front of him yet again. She wasn't sure if there was anything she could help with, or if Shadow would even let her help after the morning's fiasco. She figured there wouldn't be much she could help with, so she decided to at least set the table. She got the plates and silverware after a moment remebering where Shadow kept them, and carefully placed them in the table. She made it so they would sit in front of each other. She thought it would be less weird than being side by side.

Finishing quite fast, she once again felt like doing something, but was quite unsure about what. Shadow gave her quite the freedom in his house, but she felt a little uncomfortable with doing things without asking him first. Being a queen, she rarely left her kingdom, much less to visit someone's house. Even so, she considered basic education to respect someone's property, and so she did. She wanted to ask him a few things, but she felt embarrased. She sighed and sat down.

After moments of staring at Shadow's back while he cooked, she was starting to get bored. She decided to talk to Shadow. "Hey, can I ask you something?," She started "Is there a reason to why you're wanted by the government?" She chose her words carefully. She was curious, but the true reason behind the question was to confirm if he was someone she could trust, and if he was someone she should watch out for. He seemed like a nice person, despite his emotionless face and his anger, but it could be an act. Blaze knew she was probably being paranoid, but she felt like she needed to know the answer.

He slowly turned to her, his expression unreadable. The silence made Blaze nervous as they both stared at each other. Not daring to say another word, Blaze waited in silence until Shadow finally turned back to the oven.

"You're a pyrokinetic right?" He asked, remembering the boiling milk that'd have deformed his face if not for his amazing healing. She got totally confused at the sudden change of subject but decided to go along with it.

She slowly nodded, confused "...Yes...?"

"And have you ever been judged for your powers being too dangerous or too scary?" He had a serious expression.

Now Blaze was starting to understand. She slowly nodded again. "Yes... In my childhood I wasn't able to control my powers very well, and when people weren't making fun of me they were afraid of me..." She looked down as the painful memories haunted her.

"There you have it." He said, sounding bored. He opened the fridge and pulled some juice and fruits out of it. "It's pretty much the same for me." He picked two knifes and quickly cut the lemons and apples into cubes. Blaze was surprised at his precision, skill and speed at handling knives, but was more focused on what he was telling her.

"They see me as a threat." He explained as he pulled some french fries from the oil. "I was created with far too much power, and to weaklings like these humans that is something dangerous." He moved the fries so the excess oil would fall back to the pan and then brought the fries to a container covered in paper towel. He then took the container and brought it to the table, placing it next to Blaze. He then went back to the other pans. "Ever since I was born they've been hunting me down, and they've killed people that I cared about just because I was powerful."

Blaze seemed taken back from what he said. She wondered why he said 'created' instead of 'born', and wondered if he was an android or something, but that was unlikely. She also didn't expect his past to be similar to hers, yet she felt that there was something else that made him be a wanted man. Her mouth moved on it's own. "W-What happened...?"

He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. "Nothing happened." he growled. Blaze could see that it was hard for him to say this, that it wasn't something he really wanted to talk about, and almost regretted asking him to do so. She wanted to tell him that it was ok, that he didn't have to continue, but he kept talking. "All I did was come to this world, and to them that's the same as trying to fucking destroy it. In fact, two years ago I saved the goddamn world with Sonic, and what did they do? They raised my bounty." His brows narrowed in anger. "I shouldn't have wasted my time protecting these garbage."

Blaze frowned. Shadow didn't notice and continued. "I should've let them all die."

Suddenly, Blaze got up abruptly from her chair with an angered expression. "You're wrong!" She exclaimed, close to a growl. That caught Shadow by surprise.

"I don't know the circumstances, but you did the right thing! Even if they fail to acknowledge it, you did something great, and I know that deep down they are grateful for it. Letting innocent people to die would be a cowardly thing to do, and if you'd done it I'd lose all the respect I have for you." She sounded serious. Shadow listened in silence. "My parents once told me that powers come with responsibilities, and I'm sure that only a heartless monster would like to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of citizens."

Shadow narrowed his eyes. Was she serious? Sure, he knew most people were against murder and things related to that, but somehow he couldn't care less. Not after seeing a bounty on his head, despite being a hero for once. That didn't annoy Shadow like it would probably have in a normal situation, but rather... he felt hurt. Hurt for not being accepted despite what he did. And from that he came to rage. He came to despise. He came to hate everything and everyone, and if it weren't for his boss and his job, he'd have made his life as a mercenary. He saw himself as someone heartless, as someone uncapable of feeling guilt, remorse, or doubt.

 _"Yes..."_ He thought _"I can't bring myself to care about others. I don't feel a thing for those who despise me other than anger. And I have no doubt about that, because uncertainty means doubt, doubt means hesitation and hesitation means **weakness**. And being the ultimate life form, strenght and power are everything to me. Nothing else matters."_

But as much as Shadow thought like that, he knew that deep down a lot had changed since his fated meeting with his mentor. He came to love doing something other than killing and beating people up. He came to respect other people. He came to accept a 'challenge' - as how it seemed to him - to become a better person around others. To become a gentleman. To become a man people would respect out of admiration and not out of fear. He knew it, and that made him confused. Then he remembered his own words about doubt and weakness and shrugged it off. _"Power is everything"_ He repeated in his mind, trying to convince himself.

He noticed Blaze was still looking at him fiercely, as if waiting for him to apologize for what he said. He meant every word and wouldn't say otherwise because of a glare. He grunted.

"Yeah, right." He picked his plate from the table and started filling it with food. Blaze kept her frown. She knew what he just said was wrong, but she didn't know everything about him, so she felt it was unfair to get angry at him. He had his reasons to be angry, and she didn't want to be one of them. She decided to let the subject down, since it wasn't doing any good for either of them. As much curious as she got from how powerful he truly was or how he saved the world, or even if he would really let innocent people die, it was clear that it would do no good to ask him about it if it angered him. She settled down and picked her own plate, waiting for Shadow to finish grabbing his food. As soon as he did and sat down, she approached the pans.

It seemed like a pretty simple meal: A pan with fried rice, one with black beans, another one with chicken stroganoff and finally the fries and the salad that were already in the table. All smelled delicious, and Blaze, as hungry as she was, got a queen's plate, which meant she restrained herself from eating an exaggerated amount of food. Not only it was unladylike, but she also tought of it being an attitude for a glutton, not for a well-mannered person like her.

She sat in front of him and they ate in silence for some moments. The only audible sound in the kitchen was from the clock in the wall and the lettuce being chewed. Blaze wondered if he got angry with her for earlier. She tried to talk to him again, but this time, she tried to change the subject.

"I like those rings in your arms." She commented, appreciating the jewels. Shadow looked puzzled for a moment before getting what she meant. She shifted her gaze from his arms to his face "Where did you buy them?"

Shadow shrugged. "I didn't." He said after swallowing some food. "These were made specially for me."

"Oh?" Blaze seemed curious. She took a sip of juice and then faced him again. "Do you have any friend that works in a jewelery?"

Shadow shook his head. "No. These rings aren't mere fashion items. They were made by a scientist"

Blaze's curiosity grew. She raised an eyebrow, wondrering what kind of scientist would make oversized rings that worked as bracelets. Then again, she recalled he said something about them not being for fashion. She got confused and soon asked him about it. "What are they, then?"

Shadow faced her. "They are called inhibitor rings." He said as he raised his arms so both could take a better look at the metallic rings. "They were made to restrain my powers."

Blaze got quiet and damned herself for talking about something related to his powers again. She quietly listened to him while she looked closely for signs of him getting angry, but he remained emotionless. _"Figures."_ She thought. _"The only visible emotion he demonstrates is anger. How can someone be so moody anyway?"_

He didn't seem to notice she was studying him. "Just like that blue faker, my power is constantly growing as time passes and as I improve myself." He explained then pointed to his rings. "They were designed so that they could constantly inject me with tranquilizers or something like that. That way I won't end up blowing the planet up by accident." He got a mouthful of food, leaving a speechless Blaze in front of him as he returned his attention to the plate.

Powers growing over time? Tranquilizers? Constant injection? Blowing the planet? Blaze couldn't absorb these info. It was indeed something hard to believe, yet she felt that he wasn't lying. Was he bragging about his powers? Or was he actually saying the truth? Blaze didn't know what to think, but if he was, indeed, that powerful, then even she would see him as a threat. And just as the word 'threat' crossed her mind she recalled the conversation from earlier and how people's pre-judgements on him angered him to no ends and how it hurt the people he loved.

He did seem like a powerful person. Even the way he walked could be intimidating, and he didn't seem like the type that'd prefer avoiding a fight that actually participating in one. But without those rings, could he really blow up a planet? A planet? That was impossible. Even so, Blaze felt like she didn't want proof on what he said. Somehow, as absurd as it seemed, she felt like he could be telling the truth. And she wasn't sure how she should feel next to him if that was the case.

Shadow suddenly got up, taking Blaze away from her reveries. He got his plate and his cup, who were both empty, and headed for the sink, where he started cleaning them up.

 _(He's a cook... A cook that claims to have the power to destroy the world, even by accident. He also claimed to have saved the world once, and that he regretted doing so, that he should have let many innocents die. Nothing he says is making sense... Just what kind of person he really is? What exactly am I dealing with, an egotistical prick, a lier who brags to feel great or an actual dangerous guy? Oh, guardians of Sol, what have I gotten myself into?)_ Blaze sighed as she got up and cleaned her own plate before following Shadow out of the kitchen.

Just then, the phone rang. Blaze imagined it was Amy and would have rushed to the phone if Shadow hadn't got the first.

"What?" He said with his deep voice. Blaze slowly shook her head. ( _He's cold even when answering the phone...)_

 _"Um... I'm looking for a girl named Blaze... Is this the right number?"_ Shadow immediately recognized the voice as Amy's. Saying nothing, he looked at Blaze through the corner of the eye and motioned, with his head, for her to answer it. Without thinking twice, Blaze quickly approached him and brought the phone to her ear.

"Hello?" She timidly asked although she could already guess who would be on the other side.

 _"Blaze? It's me, Amy. Hey, who's the person who picked the phone up? His rich voice startled me!"_

Blaze rolled her eyes "It's... a friend of mine. So, did you talk to everyone?" She went right to the point, not wanting to waste time talking about Shadow.

 _"I did. Look, Blaze, everyone seems pretty busy today, so we wanted to ask you if it's ok to meet up on Monday. It's two days from here and we can meet up for lunch, or even dinner. What do you say?"_

"Hm... Ok then. Where should we meet up?" She asked, unsure if she should feel happy or sad because of the delay.

 _"Have you ever heard of a restaurant called 'My Sweet Gluttony?'"_

Blaze was prepared to say no, but somehow the name didn't sound so strange to her. Blaze forced an answer out from her brain, trying hard to remember. It was then that it hit her that it was the restaurant she'd start working in a few days.

"Y-yeah, I know of it." She answered, fearing what was to come.

 _"Great! Then let's meet there. Ok?"_

 _(No. That's not great!)_ Blaze thought. The thought of being seen by all kinds of customers, employees, and even Shadow himself, in an embarrasing maid outfit was already bad enough for her to almost change her mind and refuse the job. Now with Sonic and everyone else's presence she wasn't sure if she would be able to bear with the embarrasment. A dress was already pretty embarrasing for her, but a maid's dress?

"S-sure..."

 _"Good!_ _We have a friend there that might be able to help you as well._ _We'll see you in a few days then!"_ Before Blaze could protest, Amy hung up the phone. The cat sighed and did the same. Shadow's presence surprised her when she turned around, since she didn't expect him to still be there. And in total silence.

"So?" He asked, sounding uninterested.

"Well... We'll meet with them in two days." She said. He nodded and was about to leave when she continued "In your restaurant."

Shadow stopped on his tracks, and slowly turned his head to face Blaze. His usual emotionless face had confusion and perhaps a bit of anger in it. "What?"

"I said we'll be meeting in your restaurant." She repeated, immediately regretting her words as he approached her. His movements reminded her of a panther, stealthy and muscular, every inch a deadly predator, and she couldn't repress a shiver.

"Why." The way he talked didn't seem like a question, but a demand. Clearly he also didn't enjoy the idea of meeting his 'rival' at his workplace, and for a moment Blaze actually thought he would harm her, despite how much he insisted he'd never harm a woman in any way.

Trying not to sound scared or intimidated, Blaze eyed his with a fierce gaze. "They decided that on their own. They didn't give me an opportunity to help with the decision." She tried to sound serious.

Shadow closed his eyes and sighed. His sigh sounded more like a roar, every decibel of it unwilling to hide his clear dissatisfaction with the place chosen. He brought a hand to his head and shook it. Slowly he looked back at Blaze. "I will not allow them to distract us from our duties." He said firmly. "If it has to be there, so be it. But only at our break times or when our shift ends."

Blaze nodded. "I understand."

"Hm." Shadow turned and laid down on the couch, leaving Blaze alone to release some air she hadn't realized she'd been holding. The way Shadow could intimidate her proved just how dangerous and scary he could be, and that made Blaze, who usually never faltered to an enemy's dominance, nervous. She wondered if she should actually tell him about her situation and let him help her. _(Either way... I'm stuck with him for some time. I just hope he suddenly doesn't decide to kill me... I don't know if I could put up a fight with him for too long.)_ She thought as she hurried to Shadow's bedroom and laid down on his bed, feeling uneasy for some reason.

* * *

 **Ok, that'll be it for now. You must have noticed, but when I make a character think, I change the words to Italic, but now that I made phone calls like this as well, thoughts will be inside parenthesis so it won't confuse you guys. On to the next chapter!**


	6. Chapter 5

**Hello guys. I'll apologize for taking so long, but I hope you come to enjoy this chapter. It's just that my job consumes quite a lot of my time, and whenever I have any free time I decide to rest, since it's pretty exausting. But anyway, I'll try to write more, so for now just sit down and enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: The meeting.**

Blaze sighed in annoyance as she struggled to get a table clean. No matter how much she wiped it with a wet piece of cloth, some sticky (now dry) liquid refused to be removed, and after a whole minute wiping a single spot, she finally managed to finish her task of cleaning the tables. She wiped some sweat from her forehead. She didn't expect the job to be so tiring, but she couldn't deny that she was enjoying herself. It was way better than her usual boring routine of doing nothing in her castle. Not exactly 'nothing', but comparing her duties as ruling her kingdom and serving some clients, the latter was much easier and enjoying than a stack of papers.

But at that particular day, Blaze was angry. She wasn't feeling like burning everything to the ground, but she wasn't in a good mood. A few days ago she was supposed to have a meeting with Amy and everyone else, but at last minute the pink hedgehog called to reschedule the meeting to Friday, which would be today, at the current day. Blaze should be happpier, but she had a good reason not to. Blaze made sure to tell Amy that she was in hurry and that it was important, but she was so angry that she didn't even pay attention to Amy's excuse. Now her kingdom would have to wait even more time for her. And that made her terribly uneasy and worried, not to mention angered.

Not just that, but Shadow was also getting on her nerves. A few days ago she was wondering what kind of person he was, and by now she was sure that if the sin of Pride had an incarnation, that would be him. Whevener he could, he said things like 'I'm the ultimate life form', or 'Nothing is impossible for me', or even 'There's nothing anyone here can do that I cannot do better.' Not just that, but even though he always did things perfectly, the smug smirk that always showed in his face right afterwards often gave her the desire to punch him and break his teeth for good. What angered her the most, though, was the way he spoke: like as if he being great was natural, like as if it was obvious. He spoke with such calmness when making a smug comment that it seemed like he wasn't bragging to piss off anyone (even though with was working perfectly with Blaze), but rather for the single reason that he was great and that it was a fact.

Despite his ego, she found him to be a great person, but never dared to tell him so it wouldn't boost even more his pride. He was actually very dedicated to his job, which was respectable. He gave orders like a strict militar captain: calm and precise, yet with authority in his voice that obliged people to obey. He was also very polite when not bragging and she could see he often tried his best at being sociable with customers and his staff, like Zeff wanted him to be. Unfortunately for him, though, it was difficult and she found amusement at seeing him struggle to be nice. The staff always bickered at how strong Shadow was, and for a second she considered if he was as strong as he said, but she convinced herself that the power he claimed to have was just more ego talk.

"I'm done with the tables." She told Shadow after releasing an exausted sigh. He was carefully cutting some beef as he looked at her through the corner of his eye.

"Good. Go get some rest then." He answered, refocusing his attention on the large piece of meat. She took that as a hint that he didn't want to be disturbed again. After grabbing herself a glass of water, she let herself rest as she sat down on a chair at the employees's room, a.k.a kitchen. She looked at the time as she gulped down the water.

 _"It's getting late... Don't tell me they're not coming?"_ Blaze shook her head from the thought. She didn't need any more stress than from today's day of work. Eventually Shadow appeared next to her and sat down. He scratched his forehead.

"Where are they?" He asked.

Blaze sighed in annoyance. "I don't know."

Silence.

Shadow frowned. He wasn't as worried as her about this whole thing, but he hated having to wait for something or someone. Waiting for Sonic of all people to show up wasn't exactly the way he'd pass his time, but he was being forced to it and was now just as stressed as Blaze. Maybe not as much, but still stressed. He felt like going for a smoke, but knew he couldn't. He was still on working duty, and also he respected the people around him that didn't smoke. So he'd have to wait until he was home and far from Blaze for his usual smoke. And hell, how it pained him.

"Do you think they're coming?" Blaze's voice took Shadow awat from his thoughts of murdering a certain blue hedgehog. He slowly turned to her direction, only to find her staring at the ground with an unreadable expression. He shrugged.

"Beats me." He honestly said. He couldn't expect much from Sonic, and even if he didn't, it wouldn't change the fact that Sonic was, at times, the most unrealiable person in the planet. Sighing, he got up and started cleaning up the dishes. Eventually Blaze got up too and started helping him, much to his surprise and curiosity.

"I'll help you out." She said as she picked the first plate and threw water on it.

"Suit yourself." He said.

She glanced at his through the corner of her eye"Am I getting a 'thank you' by the end of this?" She teased.

Shadow raised an eyebrown at her and smirked. "It is in your best interest to assist me. I'm sure you'll be fine without one."

She rolled her eyes, giggling. "Yeah, sure. As if the 'ultimate life form' even needed any help to begin with, right?"

"You took the words right off my mouth." Both chuckled as they focused their attention back to their piles of plates and worked in total silence. Only 20 minutes later, when they were done, that Shadow muttered more words.

"I suppose I should thank you." He maintained his usual smirk, getting in return a sarcastic look from the purple cat.

"Wow, I got the 'ultimate life form's gratitude'. This is the happiest day of my life." She teased as she laughed

"It should be, you know. You got to work together with a legend, and very few people get to do that."

She rolled her eyes once more. "Yeah, yeah, sure. Legends."

Shadow was glad she was starting to feel better. He could tell she was stressed the whole week, and her smile was finally starting to return. She let out an annoyed sigh as she removed the cleaning gloves. "Do you think they'll come?"

Shadow looked at her in suprise. She suddenly looked very melancholic, even for him. He approached her and gently placed his hand on her shoulder. "They gave their word, so they'll make it this time. If they don't..."

Blaze looked at him for some moments then slowly nodded. She flashed him a weak smile. "I'll go back to work."

Nodding, Shadow removed his own gloves and left for his own duties.

After three hours, Shadow was clenching his fists as he glanced at the wall clock. He nearly broke a glass he was holding, so he placed it on the counter before it was smashed to pieces. Sighing, he glanced at the sad Blaze sweeping the floor. Somehow it pained him everytime she stopped what she was doing to look at the front door. Whenever the doors opened and the small bell ringed to inform that clients have appeared, she would stop whatever she was doing to look. And would always disappointedly go back to what she was doing, since it was never Sonic.

Another table got empty, as the couple occuppying it finally got up to leave. Shadow noticed how empty the restaurant was. But that was normal, since it was getting late. Shadow sighed as he struggled not to pull out a cigarette and smoke it. He stared at Blaze in silence as she silently worked to get her mind out from a certain subject. Shadow was about to approach her and say something when he heard familiar voices. Turning around, he saw from the kitchen window some guests he really wish that weren't there, but he still managed to reach Blaze before she disappeared from his view.

"They're here." He told her, and immediately saw the change of emotions in her expression as she turned to him

"Really?" She didn't even wait for an answer as she hurried for the kitchen window and saw the familiar figures at the front door.

They were looking around with confused expressions in their faces, most likely looking for her. Amy even pulled her cellphone, probably to call Blaze and ask where she was. She could swear she heard someone say 'She's not here'. One of them motioned for them to leave, but Blaze soon left the kitchen and approached everyone.

"Hey, guys." She said, bringing everyone's attention to her.

Amy's eyes widened in surprise at seeing her friend in a dress. A maid's dress. Her surprise mixed with her joy and her happiness and the result was a surprise death hug at Blaze. "Oh my god, Blaze! I haven't seen you in so long! You look so good on that dress!"

Smiling, the cat pushed away from the hug and stood face to face with her pink friend. "It's good to see you too, Amy."

"Yo, Blaze!" A familiar loud voice greeted her, and Blaze turned to see none other than Sonic, with Tails, Cream and Knuckles right next to him. He eyed her from head to toe with surprise, but managed to hug her before asking the question on everyone's mind. "What's with the get-up? You working here?"

"It's great to see you Sonic. I thought you wouldn't come." Blaze rolled her eyes. "And yes, I'm working here..."

"Of course we'd come, Blaze." Amy patted Blaze's back. "We're sorry that we're late though. Some things happened..." Amy, Tails and Cream glared at Sonic and Knuckles for some reason, while both just embarrasedly looked down and shrugged.

"It's ok. I'm just glad that you came." Blaze smiled. Despite everything, she was feeling happy. She was happy to see everyone, and even happier because she'd get what she came here for. "Can we talk now?" She asked.

"Of course, Blaze. Lead us to our table, if you may" Sonic smiled at her, while she just giggled and escorted them to a table next to the wall. Everyone sat down, while she stood up.

"Well, before everything, will you guys be having anything? I can take your orders." Blaze said, already pulling a note pad from her dress's pocket. Unsurprisingly, everyone had their orders of drinks, and Blaze quickly wrote them down before bowing. "I'll be back soon with your orders."

"Take your time, Blaze!" Tails offered a polite smile before turning his attention to Cream. Blaze then hurriedly left them talking between themselves before entering the kitchen. She was already on to their drinks when Shadow suddenly appeared next to her.

He noticed she was getting drinks. "I take it that they ordered it?"

"Yeah." Blaze responded, sounding cheerier than usual. "I'll take these for them and then we'll finally talk. You'll be joining us?"

Shadow hesitated for some moments. "...Sure. I'll be there shortly."

Blaze nodded and left the kitchen with everyone's orders, leaving Shadow behind. They were all laughing to themselves when Blaze appeared, and soon she was the center of everyone's attention.

"Thanks Blaze. You look great on that dress!" Amy commented as she picked her juice.

"No kidding. How long've you been working here?" Sonic asked as he took a sip of his glass of beer.

Blaze handed Knuckles his own beer and then turned to Sonic. "I started here on Monday." She then turned to Amy as she handed Tails and Cream their orders. "And thanks for the comment, Amy. I don't really like wearing this stuff, if you ask me." Blaze smiled as Amy started giggling.

"That's written all over your face." Everyone laughed for a while, and Amy offered for Blaze to sit into the empty chair next to her. Blaze politely obliged, until Tails raised his hand.

"...Yes?" Blaze raised an eyebrown, confused.

The small fox seemed troubled to find some words. "Blaze, I think this is a stupid question since you work here... but... did you get to know someone called-"

"Shadow!" Sonic exclaimed. Everyone turned to the black hedgehog, who approached them with his usual frown. Without saying anything, Shadow pulled a chair from another table and sat next to Blaze. Finally, he just nodded and greeted everyone at once with a bored "Hm."

"Nevermind..." Tails said as he finally opened his can of juice. Everyone greeted Shadow individually and finally Sonic turned to Blaze.

"Well, I think we're all here. Blaze?" He motioned for the cat to speak. Breathing heavily, Blaze finally calmed down and then faced the multiple stares directed at her. She got herself comfortable before speaking.

"First of all, I'd like to thank everyone that came here. Believe me, I wouldn't call everyone here if it wasn't a very serious matter. I hate involving people in my problems, but this time... I really need help."

Sonic suddenly had a concerned expression. "It's ok, Blaze. You can count on us. What's going on?" The blue hero asked.

"I'll try to tell you everything with as much details as possible, but without taking much from our times." She started. "Well... I... Most of you already know, but a few probably don't. Anyway, I came from another dimension, and in that realm, I am the queen and the chosen guardian of the Sol emeralds."

 _"...What the hell? Another dimension? Queen? Sol Emeralds...? Who the hell is_ she?" Shadow thought to himself as he tried to absorb the informations. If what she said was true, a lot of things would make sense, like the fact that she didn't have a home or the fact she didn't see Sonic very much, even though they claimed to be friends, for example. Yet, that would prove that Shadow knew nothing about the girl that has been living with him, and somehow that made him uneasy, as if he should be on defensive for some reason. Yet he silently listened to her.

Blaze took a deep breath and kept talking. "Similar to the emeralds you have in your dimension -whose name I don't remember- , the Sol emeralds are jewels with enormous power within them. There are seven in total, and together they can grant unlimited power to whoever has them. As their guardian, I have them in my possession all the time but..."

Blaze closed her eyes and took another breath. Everyone seemed aprehensive. "I'm sorry. As I was saying, they are with me all the time, but there's someone in my dimension who's interested in the emeralds and their power, and is constantly after them."

"Eggman Nega." Sonic muttered. Blaze nodded at him. Shadow raised an eyebrown. Every word she said was making him even more confused. As if reading his mind, she spoke again.

"Eggman Nega is like a counterpart from the Eggman in your dimension. He's a... very capable scientist, and he's always inventing and creating robots to go after me and claim the emeralds for himself. Not very different from this Eggman, from what I recall. But... After some time without attacking my castle, he suddenly invaded with an absurd army of robots. There were countless robots, all of them with all kinds of weapons, and I was rendered powerless against them. My friend, Silver, and my own army also failed to keep up with them. I had no other choice but to run away with the emeralds to this dimension."

Blaze's voice started getting weaker. Everyone could tell she'd cry soon, and Amy soon approached her chair to Blaze's and placed a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"I know that as a ruler that was cowardly of me and... that my people were counting on me, but... If I had let that power fall in Nega's hands... There's no telling what he would do." The tears finally started running across her face, but she was quick to wipe them and try to maintain a serious expression.

"There's not a day that I spend in this dimension that I don't regret coming here. Please don't get me wrong, I really like coming here... But my people need me right now, and here I am, hiding like a coward. I hate myself for it, because I know that at this exact moment, Nega is in control of my kingdom, and there's nothing that I or anyone from my dimension can do to stop him. That's why..." She slowly raised her head to everyone's direction. "I need your help. I need... To protect my people."

There was a deadly silence as Blaze finished her words and went back to letting tears escape her eyes. As much as she tried to remain composed, she was clearly struggling to do so, and her shoulders started shaking and her face threatened to make crying faces. Amy suddenly hugged the sobbing cat while Shadow silently studied her.

At first he had a few doubts that her story was real, but now he wasn't so sure. He couldn't think of a reason why she would lie, and everyone else seemed to trust her. Still, it was hard to accept all of a sudden that his waitress was from another dimension. Not just that, but a queen. Still, Shadow had a strange certainty that she was telling the truth, and somehow the sight of her trying not to cry was, at the same time, amusing and painful to him. He admired her stubborness in remaining strong, but for some odd reason, seeing her sad made his heart ache. _"What's going on with me...? I don't even have a heart... What's with this pain?"_

Shadow was taken back from his reveries when Sonic got up all of a sudden. He had a very serious expression, and his fists were clenched.

"Don't worry. I'll help you, Blaze." He said, with seriousness that was new to everyone.

"I'll help too." Tails soon got up as well.

"Count me in" It was Knuckles getting up this time.

Cream and Amy also got up, but instead of saying anything, they just nodded at Blaze with a determined face. Blaze felt a sudden urge to cry, this time out of happiness. She turned to Shadow, who remained silent and sitting down. Soon, many gazes found their way to his direction, and he ended up closing his eyes.

"Leave this to me." He said, not getting up or changing his serious expression. Yet this single statement gave her a lot of reassurance. She smiled at him as she finally felt unable to keep holding her tears back. Sonic approached her and hugged her with one arm, all the while offering his usual smile.

"Don't worry Blaze, if we work together we'll get rid of Nega in no time!" He said, his usual confidence reassuring the cat even more, who was now helplessly crying. "Now, why don't we celebrate our reunion?" The blue hedgehog said as he raised his glass of beer. Soon, others also lifted their glasses and they touched each other with a loud cling.

While everyone enjoyed each other's company, Shadow suddenly got up and adjusted his clothes.

"Where ya going, Shads?" Sonic asked offering a friendly smile. "Back to the boring work?"

Shadow, however, just grunted at the blue hero. "That's none of your concern faker." He then turned his back at everyone and left for the kitchen. Blaze looked at him, then at her friends, then at him again. She felt uncertain if she should stay or if she should follow him and go back to work. She figured she should go with him. After all, what kind of employee sits around with customers and has fun with them while everyone else stuggle in the kitchen?

"Wait, Shadow! I'm coming back too." She said. She then motioned that she'd get up to leave too, but Shadow stopped on his tracks and slightly turned back.

"No. I'll let you stay and do whatever you want with them." He said, already turning back to the kitchen.

"But-"

"It's ok. Just have fun with them, or whatever." He gave her his usual smug smirk. "You should be thankful that I'm in a good mood today."

She maintained her uncertain expression for a few moments before sighing and relaxing her body. She then turned to Shadow with a forced smile.

"Are you sure it's ok...?"

"Yes."

She flashed him a smile before bowing slightly "Thanks, Shadow..." She sat back at her place. The last thing Shadow saw before hurrying back to the kitchen was Sonic hugging Blaze with one arm, while the others at the table stared happily at them.

Shadow closed the kitchen doors behind him and sighed. He couldn't really understand why, but he felt strange. He still wasn't used to seeing them, much less to being considered their friend. He had a lot on his head, and barely focused on what he was doing. His thoughts wandered from Sonic, to Eggman, to himself and, finally, to Blaze. Could she really be a queen? Did she really come from another dimension? What were those Sol emeralds? There were so many questions in his head that he could feel his mood changing. And it wasn't to a better one.

But there was something else bothering him. Something he couldn't quite explain, but he knew it had something to do with Blaze. He felt weird as he remembered Sonic hugging her, and for some reason he felt like punching the blue hero. " _No surprise there... I always feel like beating that faker up. But..."_ Shadow grunted as he tried to focus on the pans in front of him. He stared emotionlessly at the boiling red sauce, watching in silence as the surface of it was full of bubbles. He got a spoon got a small taste of the sauce before turning to one of the cooks.

"It needs more salt."

"Yes, Mr. Shadow." Without wasting time, the cook hurried to the counter and got a bag of salt. Shadow watched every move he did, which only made the cook a bit more nervous. But for some reason, today of all times, Shadow didn't feel like watching newbies and scaring them like usual. When the cook accidently put too much salt and nearly ruined the sauce, Shadow started to get angry.

Before he could yell at the man, however, somethign caught his attention. He saw someone familiar on the back door's windows.

"What the-...?" Shadow questioned himself and, without second thoughts, his legs started moving on their own. On his way, he picked a random used order and started writing something on it. He then approached Zeff.

"I have something to do, so I'm leaving."

"Then go, midget. I don't need you in this kitchen." Zeff smirked at him, while Shadow simply grunted and handed him the small piece of paper.

"Do this for me if I don't come back."

Zeff looked at the paper with confusion, but Shadow was already gone.

* * *

Before he knew, he was already outside of the restaurant. He looked around and soon spotted the same silhouette from before, covering herself with a hooded cape. But from the looks of it, the silhouette was running from him.

"Hey, wait!" Shadow snarled as the person started to run. He followed right after, not bothering to use his full speed. The person then turned into an empty alley, but when Shadow did the same, the person wasn't there.

"Where did-" Before Shadow could finish that question, he heard a noise from above, and he saw that the person was now at the top. Hissing, Shadow jumped and kicked a wall, lauching himself to another wall. He kept doing so until he was at the same spot he saw the mysterious person. But of course, she wasn't there anymore. Instead, she was a few meters away, jumping from one roof to another. Shadow followed, but as he jumped to one building, the person was already at another.

Eventually they were both at the top of one building, and there were no others to jump to. Shadow approached the person with anger, but was surprised when two large wings appeared from the person's back and she flew away.

"Are you kidding me." Shadow muttered to himself, boiling with anger.

Now far from him, the person dodged a few incoming builings as she flew, and eventually she found a safe place to land. Now, much to her surprise, she found a very angered hedgehog standing right in front of her.

"You got the nerve to make me use my powers to chase you. Now tell me what this is about, Rouge!" Shadow roughly pushed the person's hood from her face. Yet, what he found wasn't a person at all.

"What the-" Shadow stared in confusion at the metallic version of his friend Rouge, trying to figure out what was going on. The robot stared at him right back, with glowing pixeled green eyes. A certain voice brought understanding to him.

"Heeeehehehehe. It's been a long time, eh, Shadow? Did you like my robot?" The dark hedgehog turned back to find none other than Eggman himself, floating with the help of one of his machines.

Shadow's expression had 'displeased' written all over it. "Eggman." He said cooly. The fat doctor frowned.

"Is that how you treat your beloved doctor after so long? After all the sadness I've been through when I thought you were dead? After all the-"

"Cut the bullshit, Eggman!" Shadow hissed, still quite angry from before. His tone made Eggman flinch. "Just tell me what you want, because I'm not in the mood for any more games!" The hedgehog yelled, yellow electricity running through his body.

After a moment recovering, Eggman adjusted himself of his flying machine and tried to adopt a serious tone. "Eh... Ahem, very well then... I'll go straight to business."

"You better." The hedgehog crossed his arms, maintaining his angered expression. The doctor frowned at his creation's arrogance, but ignored it.

"You see Shadow... I need you to ally with me."

Shadow got suspicious _"It's just as Rouge said... He's up to something..."_

"What for?" The hedgehog asked.

Eggman started playing with his mustache. A devious grin on his face "I'm very close, Shadow. I finally came up with a plan so that I could finally conquer this world! But for that to happen, I need you help. I assure you that not even Sonic would be able to stop us. Not with the secret card I have in hand."

"What are you talking about." Shadow demanded. Somehow that talk felt different from the other times. For some reason, Shadow actually believed Eggman was planning something dangerous, specially after that talk with Rouge.

"I cannot give you the details unless you agree to join me. So, my dear Shadow, are you in or not?

Shadow frowned. "Not interested."

Eggman stared at Shadow in silence, before letting out a loud sigh and looking at the hedgehog with disappointment.

"How unfortunate. However, I don't think I can accept that answer. You could be a problem to me in the future..." Eggman's expression suddenly turned darker, and Shadow immediately got defensive. What he wasn't expecting, though, was an attack from behind.

"URGH!" Shadow groaned in pain as he got impaled on his back, mentally cursing himself from forgetting about the robot behind him. He stumbled forward, bringing his arm to the weapon on his back and pushed it out. It turned out it wasn't a weapon, but a very large needle. And from the weird green substance inside, Shadow knew he had been injected with something.

"Eggman... you...!" Shadow tried to get up, but suddenly his body felt ten times heavier and he fell to his knees. He widened his eyes, pushing the ground with his hand so that he wouldn't fall completely. With difficulty, he raised his head so he could face a grinning Eggman. "What... have you done... to me?"

Eggman feigned ignorance, shrugging. "What's wrong Shadow? Are you feeling unwell? Need me to call an ambulance? Hahahaha!" Eggman got himself into a fit of hysterical laughter. "Just give up, Shadow! No one is here to save you now!"

"I don't need anyone else...!" Pushing his weakened body to it's limits, Shadow punched the ground, forcing himself up and cracking the floor. "I'll make... you pay for this!" He hissed, panting as he struggled with all his might not to fall.

Eggman smiled with malice to him. "We'll see about that." He then turned to the robot behind Shadow "Metal Rouge?"

Almost forgetting about the robot once again, Shadow tried to turn back, but what met him was a hard mettallic fist to his face, which sent him flying several meters and crumpling to the ground like mincemeat. He coughed some blood, forcing himself up again. Before he could react, the robot was already next to him delivering another blow, sending him away again. This time, however, before he could fall to the ground the robot had already reached him, delivering a powerful kick upwards, sending Shadow several meters from the ground. Once again, before he could do anything, the robot was already next to him again, and this time it did a powerful blow downwards using both hands, sending Shadow down at an amazing speed, only to fall down on the street with so much force that a large cloud of dust formed around him.

Eggman and the robot landed near the place Shadow fell, and as the cloud subsided, it revealed the hedgehog laying on a large crater, grunting in pain but too wounded and weakened to move.

"I see you're still alive." Eggman stated. "That was to be expected since my grandfather made you immortal. But..." Eggman's evil smile returned "You're not healing so soon."

Shadow slowly opened his eyes. His vision was slightly blurred, and everything was spinning. Even so, he still managed to gather the strenght to stand, even if with great difficulty.

"You can still stand? I must say, I'm impressed. Your will power hasn't changed a bit. But It's about time I knock you out." Eggman once again turned to his robot. "Do it."

The robot simply extended his arm and suddenly it started to deconstruct itself. It was, in a matter of seconds, turned into a cannon, which was aimed at Shadow. Shadow's eyes widened when green energy suddenly started to form inside of the robot's cannon. The loud noise of energy being charged echoed in the empty streets, and it only grew louder and the light itself became brighter and bigger. Soon the light was already enough to illuminate the entire area they were.

"Goodbye, Shadow!" Eggman said and soon his floating machine enveloped him into a hard iron ball, protecting him from the large blast that was to come.

 _"Move dammit! Move! I can't lose here, not to him!"_ Shadow yelled to himself on his mind, but he couldn't move an inch. He was putting all he had into standing out of pride, so moving was totally out of question. His body was petrified, and soon he came to understand that he wasn't escaping from that.

But he didn't care. He knew he wouldn't die. He knew Eggman wouldn't capture him so easily. The dark hedgehog stared emotionlessly at the blinding light. For some reason, memories kept flashing on his head. His memories in the Ark, memories with faker and the others, memories with black doom, memories at his restaurant and, finally, Blaze came to his mind once more. Something like a smile appeared on his face.

"Hmph... bring it then..." Shadow muttered, and seconds later a large ball of light found it's way to him...

* * *

"W-Whoa... did you guys hear that?" Tails asked, trying to look outside of the window. Amy and quite a lot more people at the restaurant did the same.

"I wonder what was that?" The pink hedgehog asked, her heart still beating fast since she totally wasn't prepared for that loud noise, consequently being scared to death for a few seconds.

"That sounded like an explosion..." Sonic said. "I should go check it out. Someone might have been injured."

"Come on. That sounded more like a thunder to me. Look at how cloudy the sky is. It's probably just going to rain soon." Knuckles said, somewhat annoyed that everyone made such a big deal out of a noise.

"It sounded like an explosion to me, so I'll check it out. Bout time for the restaurant to close anyway, right Blaze?" Sonic immediately looked at the clock, prompting Blaze to do the same.

"Y-Yeah..."

"So, I'm off. See you later guys!" Sonic was about to speed off when he reminded something. "Oh yeah, you're coming with me Tails. Or else you'll have no one to take you home!"

"But I don't want to g-" Before he could finish, Sonic grabbed his hand and dashed out of the restaurant, leaving only a blue streak behind. The others at the table sighed.

"That Sonic..." Amy sighed. "He wasn't sure if it was an explosion and even so he went there... What a hero...!" The pink hedgehog spoke to herself, while the others just sweatdropped.

Blaze looked outside of the window with uncertainty on her face. _"Why do I have a bad feeling about this...?"_ She asked herself

"I'll go check on Shadow for a while. He might be needing me in the kitchen." She told the others.

Knuckles shrugged "He gave you a break, why would you want to go back there and work?"

"Shut up Knuckles!" Amy frowned, then offered a sweet smile to Blaze. "Go ahead Blaze, we'll be right here."

Nodding, the cat got up and entered the kitchen. After some time scanning it, she noticed a certain someone wasn't present.

"Excuse me, Chef Zeff." She approached her boss, who looked at her with amusement.

"Well, if it isn't Blaze. I told you already, there's no need to be so formal towards me." He smiled. "Shadow told me he gave you a free day, so don't worry. You've been doing a great job so I have nothing to complain."

Blaze felt happy at those words. "T-Thanks. I means a lot to me."

Zeff shouted a random order to some cooks. "Haha, no problem, my dear. Now, is there something you need from me?

"Actually, I was wondering if you saw Shadow? He doesn't seem to be here."

Blaze could swear she saw Zeff's expresion to darken. She had never actually seen that man serious, and that face only raised her anxiety.

"About that..." He started. Blaze gulped. She wasn't sure why, but something deep inside her was telling her that something wasn't well after all.

 _End of Chapter 5_

* * *

 **Well, this is it for now. Sorry again for taking so long. Please don't forget to review!**


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